Insurance underwriting transformation is turning into a buzzword already. Insurers across the globe are exploring ways to tap into new customer profiles without increasing risk. In this context, mental health consideration opens a whole new avenue of products, added benefits, advanced premium calculations, better protection, extended human life, etc. 

Mental health issues affect more than 25% of the population across England. The proportion has only risen since the pandemic, which is still ongoing.  

Although a sizable number of organizations and employers have taken note of the situation and now offer some sort of mental health-related support for their employees, this is more of a reactive nature in terms of days off, some internal counselling etc.. The time (and market) is ripe for the much-needed preventive measures that employers can take themselves, it is also inevitable that insurance underwriting undergoes transformation to cover individual customers as well as the customer base of their employers. 

Mental Health Tools for Insurance Underwriting Transformation

Emerging technology and solutions that address psychological resilience and well-being can help insurance underwriters. For example, AI-based psychological age calculator and recommendation engine by Deep Longevity allows insurance providers to both evaluate their customers as well as help them lead a better, longer, and healthier life. 

We know that psychological states affect everything we do – from following a healthy diet and lifestyle to taking medications as per the schedule. These factors converge over time. And for someone dealing with issues like stress, anxiety, mild to severe depression, etc., the effect on health and longevity can be catastrophic.   

Deep Longevity provides a portfolio of aging clocks, including the Psychological Aging Clock, to predict the current biological age and future health prospects. Psychological age refers to the mental state most typical for people of a certain age group. The Psychological Aging Clock measures the psychological well-being of a person, which has a much higher impact on physical health and aging than the best of past speculations. 

This article expands upon our previous issue that explored how BloodAge Clock can improve the health insurance underwriting for both the insurance provider(s) and their customers. The Psychological Aging Clock goes further beyond! Get ready for the insurance underwriting transformation. 

The Missing Factor

Although, insurance underwriters rely on a multitude of factors to determine insurance premiums. Age and Tobacco consumption play the deciding role. Insurers around the world focus on these two parameters without a clear understanding of the former and comparative impact analysis of the latter. 

However, new research by the scientists at Deep Longevity has found a third parameter, which has a bigger impact on physical health and aging compared to smoking. Poor psychological states can accelerate the pace of aging and deterioration of human health much more than tobacco or nicotine. 

It is essential to include mental health and psychological well-being within basic healthcare plans to help people live long and healthy lives. The insurance underwriting transformation of this magnitude will not only reduce healthcare costs and insurance claims but also improve employee productivity, health data collection, medical research, and new markets for insurance providers. 

The Challenge: A ballooning hidden cost

Mental health care is mysterious, barely understood and broken at best. 

Anxiety and depression are the most commonly diagnosed psychological issues in the UK. Insurers offer special packages and premiums to manage these and a few other problems. They do not holistically factor in mental health, which can be measured by psychological age, to determine the associated risk a customer will face in the future. 

There is also no preventive plan to avoid mental health issues, unlike physical health issues with cues on frequent tests, exercise, diet, lifestyle, etc. 

Isn’t it an oxymoron that insurance providers rely on ‘intelligent underwriting systems’ with ‘hard coded rules’ to determine insurance premiums? Higher BMI equals higher premiums, and so do alcohol consumption and smoking. And it all works until you factor in the true cost of mental health and its impact on physical health and mortality. 

Insurers cannot continue to ignore mental health and its potential impact on physical health. The archaic equation of insurance underwriting is futile without factors like psychological age. It is not enough to offer plans for a few diagnosed conditions. 

Even with those plans in place, the cover and treatment for mental health issues like depression and anxiety are sporadic at best. Ignoring the significant impact mental health can have on physical health and aging also misses and leaves the opportunity and avenue of preventive health, which may change the whole conversation around mental health and extend human life. 

The majority of the global workforce deals with some mental health issues – with 59% reporting at least one challenge. Some employers have already stepped up to offer help in the form of leaves, work-life balance, counseling, etc. But it is not enough and not safe enough. 

Insurers must step in to protect and promote better life choices. That is why the insurance underwriting transformation becomes essential. 

The Opportunity: Extending human life (and revenue cycles)

Aging clocks, when availed via infinitely extensible, personalized, and globally deployed digital platforms, can benefit the mental health ecosystem beyond measure. Insurance providers can not only use such technology to evaluate the customers but also help them to extend their healthspan and lifespan. 

It is usually not easy for insurers to provide enough cover for people working in an unstable physical or financial environment. However, knowing the biological and psychological age and profile of such a potential customer may be an opportunity for both parties. Insurance providers will be able to offer services for the huge population working in unconventional and risky industries. And people who need these services the most will finally have access. 

On the other hand, these tests can also uncover potential mental health issues. So, insurers can offer better protection and preventive care at the right time. 

Psychological profile, as measured by Deep Longevity’s MindAge aging clock, along with biological age prediction by Blood Age, gives a better picture of a customer’s current well-being and future health prospects. 

The insurance company that transforms its underwriting practices and implements such a technology will not only add customers and revenue but also help those customers enjoy a long and healthy life. It’s essential for industry leaders to adopt new technologies to keep up with emerging competition.

Contact us to learn more about MindAge and other tools to transform insurance underwriting at your organization.

Unlike regular doctors who focus on specific diseases and medical conditions, longevity doctors have to deal with a host of issues that are otherwise unheard of in the medical profession. For example — too many parameters, a pure lack of standard diagnosis, patient motivation, result verification, and more. These issues not only affect the earlier diagnosis and treatment of probable aging-related diseases but also add to the confusion that surrounds longevity therapies and solutions, both on the part of the patients and medical professionals.

SenoClock solves these problems. It’s a SaaS-based platform that offers a portfolio of all the aging clocks developed by Deep Longevity. Doctors can use this platform for the diagnosis of current anomalies in a patient’s health as well as for the prediction of their future health concerns and possible solutions to avoid the same.

Let’s explore how it enables longevity doctors to help their patients live healthier, happier, and longer lives.

A new parameter that encompasses them all

Though, longevity doctors have a single goal to extend and preserve the healthy life of their patients. It quickly translates into the struggle to avoid every possible disease or sickness that might affect them.

With no standard diagnosis and parameters in place, it is nearly impossible for medical professionals to come to a consensus regarding the problem and possible interventions. In fact, it is very likely that a human won’t even pick up on the microscopic cues hidden among the numbers in multiple reports.

Aging clocks by Deep Longevity, which are available on SenoClock, help doctors and patients understand and analyze these standard reports by converting them into biological or psychological age.

It is not only straightforward to compare biological age with chronological age – and categorize the patients into slow or fast-ager groups, the detailed reports delivered by these aging clocks make it even easier to decide on possible interventions and therapies.

It is not only straightforward to compare biological age with chronological age – and categorize the patients into slow or fast-ager groups, the detailed reports delivered by these aging clocks make it even easier to decide on possible interventions and therapies.

Patient motivation: New goal, more life

Along with biological age, these aging clocks also predict the optimal age of a patient, i.e., the minimum possible biological age that can be achieved (with interventions available).

Longevity patients are not dealing with ongoing health issues, illness, discomfort, or pain. It doesn’t make sense for them to struggle so much over one or two parameters in their reports that deviate by a few numbers.

SenoClock, by converting these numbers into biological and optimal age, makes it worthwhile and rewarding for the patients to implement lifestyle changes and follow up on therapies. It gives them a new goal to strive for – their optimal age. If they can lower their biological age, even by a couple of years, it is a lot more beneficial and easier for them to continue the best practices.

Patients will also find it easier (and necessary) to get back on track whenever there is a slip-up and if their biological age shifts unexpectedly.

SenoClock may, in hindsight, also help longevity doctors to encourage more patients to undergo the diagnosis and take on preventive measures to improve their health prospects in the future.

Full transparency: Unearthing the real culprit – true biomarkers that affect the most

The next section of Blood Age and other reports that SenoClock avails will always include the different parameters that are used in the prediction. It lists exactly which biomarker adds how many years to a patient’s biological age. So the longevity doctor would know exactly what is affecting a patient the most and where to focus.

SenoClock eliminates all the speculations from the diagnosis and monitoring of longevity treatments. It reveals the causal factors and allows the doctors to recommend further diagnosis and future interventions that may protect a patient from unnecessary pain and procedures.

Thus, even if a patient’s biological age is somewhat less than the chronological age, the doctors will know exactly what to expect in the future. They cannot only intervene right away, they can also help their patients remove another year or two from their biological age.

These factors also go hand-in-hand with patient motivation. If you can show that lowering their cholesterol levels by a few points may take off up to two years from their biological age, it becomes much easier to explain and encourage them to avoid sugar and other unhealthy practices.

Individual patients, individual organs

Human body has a number of vital and necessary organs (and functions) that are imperative to normal human life. We cannot ignore them with an all-encompassing blood or microbiome test that predicts the biological age of a patient.

SenoClock offers a number of aging clocks that address the issue. For example — The Blood Age clock lists individual scores for different vital organs like the heart, kidneys, liver, and other glands (lipid profile). Mind Age measures the mental health and psychological well-being of a person. And microbiome-based aging clocks build different profiles that help longevity doctors better assess a patient’s current health and predict future health prospects.

The diagnosis once again not only informs the current status of the patient – but also allows for early-stage intervention and avoids disastrous possibilities. Life becomes a lot easier, and the impact on lifespan becomes negligible if you can detect the onslaught of diseases like diabetes early on – and start implementing lifestyle changes and other preventive therapies.  The same goes for the other organs as well. If you can spot the slight deterioration in performance early on, it’s easier to undergo preventive measures and avoid the worst. 

Quick intervention: More patients, better results, easier implementation

all that speculation out of the picture – and 100% digital implementation of SenoClock – longevity diagnosis becomes easier and blazing fast.

The platform allows doctors to download aging clock reports within minutes of uploading patient data, which saves both the appointment time and unnecessary waiting-time on the part of the patients. It’s also pretty easy to train professionals for the effective operation of SenoClock – and doesn’t take more than a 1-hour training seminar.

 Most of these aging clocks utilize assessment-based questionnaires and simple blood test reports available globally to predict biological age and generate the reports. So doctors do not need to find new or specific labs to run these tests. 
Longevity doctors can review more patients in less time and offer better services with precise results. By enabling doctors to attract and care for more patients – SenoClock helps them extend the lifespan of their patients at much higher scales, especially when estim With ated collectively.

If you want to implement SenoClock at your longevity clinic or hospital, request a demo call with our experts.

We’re more than ready to answer any questions or queries. There is also a free trial license available for advanced longevity clinics that want to implement the new age preventive technology.

As a word of caution – Even though all of  these aging clocks have been validated and published in multiple peer-reviewed studies around the globe, these are not yet certified for clinical use. Professional expertise is still the first and foremost approach to medicine. The platform, SenoClock, and its aging clocks should never be used to automate medical decisions.

With that said – physicians may still employ these tools to provide their patients with a new longevity-focused perspective of health – and differentiate their practice in the marketplace. If you want to implement SenoClock at your hospital or clinic, please fill up the form.