Coming off a post just a few days ago where I beat the compliance drum into a lather because that is what life insurance underwriters want to see, I turn around and shop a case where all of the underwriters fly in the very face of what they said and what I repeated.

I have a client who was diagnosed in his early 40’s as having mild plaque buildup in a few arteries as found on an angiogram. He didn’t find this out because he had a heart attack or had high cholesterol numbers or had some other health issue driving his desire to get a complete cardiological workup. He decided to have a stress test and an angiogram because his father had a heart procedure at age 67, a cautious approach to family history. Even though it was a relatively minor deal in the whole scheme of things, no heart attack, no bypass surgery, etc,  and still living at age 76, his son decided proactively to have a look see and make sure.

If this young guy had ignored his family history he would have been a best rate class approval (clinical underwriting?) on his life insurance because he wouldn’t have had a cardiac workup and wouldn’t have discovered the small amount of plaque buildup. This small amount of plaque build up is fairly common and generally not life threatening and even though it was called coronary artery disease in the doctor’s report, the thing we’re finding about doctor’s reports is that the worse they can code something for billing purposes, the more they can test and justify expensive procedures. In other words to put in this guy’s medical records that he had non life threatening plaque as opposed to coronary artery disease wouldn’t have paid as well. Doctor makes a little more and the patient gets screwed when he goes to get life insurance. It’s all good, right?

Bottom line. I’m not saying not to do what it takes to put your family’s mind at ease, but I am saying that it’s time to watch what your doctor puts in your medical records and how it affects your acquisition of medical and life and disability insurance down the road. The coronary artery disease medal hanging around your neck may get pretty heavy when you have to start paying double and triple premiums for coverage that should have all rate classes open for you. If you have questions or don’t feel like you’ve received a fair shake on your life insurance purchase, call or email me directly. My name is Ed Hinerman. Let’s talk.