The new eGPR service will enable the GP reports required to underwrite protection policies to be exchanged electronically. It will speed up the underwriting process, delivering benefits to customers, providers and IFAs such as lower cancellation rates and more rapid completion of cases.
The first development that will help this process is the new contract that GPs have with the Department of Health (DoH). This stipulates that GPs get paid against a measure of the quality of the personal and medical data they hold in their computerised patient records, which gives an impetus to accurate medical record-keeping within GP practices.
Secondly, to make this possible, General Practice is finishing its conversion of paper to electronic records, and the date of 30th September has been finalised for the capability to populate universally agreed insurance reports electronically. The gradual migration of paper records to the new electronic system is funded by the DoH and it is estimated that by 31st March 2005, about 95% of UK patients will have had their records transferred.
These developments will mean that GPs will be able to produce and transmit structured reports electronically and tailored to the needs of the insurance industry and its clients.
Dr Grant Kelly, GP and a director of PCT, comments:
“Relations between the country’s 32,000 GPs and the insurance industry haven’t always been smooth, and when you dig for the reasons why, money and work patterns come up first on the shovel for both sides. The insurers complain about tardy returns from GPs, and accuracy of reports is always a question. For their part, GPs don’t understand the time pressure the insurers feel, they don’t regard insurance as core work and the pay is never enough to compensate.
“Patient records are a huge resource for informed, evidence-based assessment of risks for the industry, and despite the move towards underwriting without such data, about a million are still requested each year at a cost to the industry of around £65 million. The eGPR service will greatly speed up this process and improve the quality of GP reports and deliver benefits to insurers, IFAs and the end consumer.”
The eGPR service will enable life insurance companies to request and receive medical reports from GPs electronically. This will reduce the administrative resources and time product providers currently spend on gathering medical information as well as eliminating manual errors that currently occur due to illegible handwriting on paper based reports.
The eGPR service is being developed and run by Marlborough Stirling in association with Primary Care Technologies (PCT). PCT is responsible for all interfaces with GPs and will run a help desk for all UK GP practices. Marlborough Stirling is responsible for the provision of a secure hosting environment, based on The Exchange’s Exweb portal, as well as all interfaces with product providers and will run a help desk for providers.
