Insurers use health records to understand an individual who has applied for life or critical illness cover. The medical reports GPs provide influence the cost and level of insurance offered, and help to verify claims.
GPs face a dilemma when they process medical reports. How do you manage the balance between GDPR compliance, accuracy and relevance?
Most GP practices have a manual process for processing medical reports for insurers, which can include:
- Printing out 'copy notes' - full copies of the patient's record including letters
- Photocopying Lloyd George notes
- Looking at every page and obscuring sensitive information that you can't share with third parties
- Posting the paper records
- Recording details of the request and the information you’re giving
We've seen records that run to more than 200 pages, so this can be a daunting task.
There's a better way now – you can process your reports on your computer using iGPR. Electronic reporting is safer, faster and more secure than a manual paper-based process. iGPR the only established electronic insurance reporting solution and is currently used by over 80 per cent of UK life insurers.
Here are five reasons why it's a great time to start using iGPR:
1. Be more compliant
GDPR introduced strict guidance on how to store and handle personal data. The regulatory fines for non-compliance can be substantial.
iGPR helps you handle patient data with safety and adhere to GDPR:
- iGPR screens your patient notes and redacts sensitive and harmful information for you. The automatic redaction removes third-party references from coded data, free-text and attachments.
- Making sure the scope of the data you provide is appropriate to the request. You'll be confident that you're sending the information requested by the insurer and nothing else.
- By creating an audit report, you can provide evidence that the report you sent was reviewed and redacted.
2. Outstanding accuracy
How long does it take you to read and redact each report? It's going to vary, but it's not unusual to spend twenty to forty minutes completing a request. That's a long time for anyone to concentrate on an intensive task. iGPR's automatic redaction doesn't lose focus or suffer from distractions. It's a huge help in ensuring your reports are complete and compliant.
3. It's better for the environment
We all have a responsibility to protect and preserve the environment. There are several ways that iGPR helps you be eco-friendly:
- With iGPR redactions are reviewed on-screen, requiring no printing. This saves paper as well as using less toner and energy.
- iGPR can screen and redact scanned Lloyd George notes. You won't need to photocopy them, saving more paper and toner.
- You'll receive electronic requests for information from insurers. When you've processed a report, you return it to the insurer using the secure NHS HSCN network. That's easier on the environment than posting a big package that's full of paper.
4. Save valuable time
iGPR will save you time because it's quicker to review and redact records. It's as fast as a couple of mouse clicks and then as long as you need to view and analyse the redactions on-screen.
There are other time savings too. Printing a record can take longer than you expect. How many times do you click Print and then find that you're out of paper or toner?
5. The software is free
There's no charge for the iGPR software, and there are no processing fees either. It will cost you nothing at all to start processing electronic insurance reports.
Get started today
We can't think of any reason not to use electronic insurance reports. It will help you to be compliant, and provide accurate and relevant medical reports.
iGPR works with EMIS, SystmOne, Vision and Microtest and may already be installed on your system. There are lots of free training videos and user-guides to help you get started.
To get started with electronic insurance reporting with iGPR, get in touch and we'll show you how easy it is.