A few weeks ago, we chatted with Ryan Kottenstette of Cape Analytics, a startup using computer vision and machine learning on geospatial imagery to generate structured property data for insurers and reinsurers.
Along the same theme of new datasets entering the underwriting process, this week saw Andreessen Horowitz-backed startup Human API partner with LexisNexis Risk Solutions to enable life insurers with electronic health data.
We chatted with Elliott Wallace, VP of Life Insurance for LexisNexis Risk Solutions on the new partnership with Human API, accelerated underwriting programs in life insurance and new opportunities for life insurance startups.
On partnering with Human API
We had identified that this was going to be a big issue as the whole premise of the Affordable Care Act came out and digitizing of medical records. We had been looking at various companies that had been providing that services as well as looking at ways that we could go directly to obtain this type of data. Human API came across our radar and what we started to learn that was different was (CEO Andrei Pop)’s understanding of data, which was in line with our premise as a data aggregator.
If you look at the life insurance process today, it’s a intrusive customer experience type of process where we’ll ask individuals a lot of questions and then we have to send people out to their house to draw blood and fluids and we also have different entities that will go out and pull medical records from your doctors manually and then somebody has to sit at a desk and read all this information manually and then decide where to put you.
What the carriers have still been looking for is our solution is really a non-medical way of streamlining the underwriting process and what Human API allows us to do is take our non-medical data and combine that with the medical information that Human API has to offer to give the additional rounding out of our solution.
On accelerated underwriting programs in the life insurance market today
We’re still in the infancy. We had started seeing carrier interest growing in kicking the tires and have implementations but there is so much more that carriers can be doing in the accelerating underwriting space. We’re just at the beginning. There’s going to be a lot of fast movement in 2018 and 2019.
On startups posing a threat to LexisNexis
I look at it more in the lens startups being partners to work with. I don’t look at it as far as an entity coming out and overtaking what LexisNexis is able to do. I don’t believe many insurance tech startups are looking at us as competitors. I think they look more at us as can they utilize our data to do things more efficiently.
On the opportunities for startups to build new brands in life insurance
I think there is some great opportunities. You’re seeing a lot more of these companies try and figure out different niches to help people buy life insurance. There is so much room for that because we have such a gap in life insurance coverage.
On the partnership moving forward
One of the first things we’re going to do is take our accelerated underwriting product, Life Risk Classifier, which currently includes public record, credit and other non-medical attributes and that take the digitized health records from Human API and integrate that into the solution set.
Looking for insurance tech startup data and analytics? Sign up free for the CB Insights Venture Capital Database.
If you aren’t already a client, sign up for a free trial to learn more about our platform.