Scottish Widows has welcomed the ABI’s guidelines on electronic paperless requests for medical information which insurers need when providing cover, such as life insurance, to customers.

Scottish Widows says it is already compliant with the guidelines, having introduced electronic General Practitioner (GP) reports into its protection policy underwriting process in November 2016. The insurer says this makes it simpler and quicker to obtain customers’ medical information from their GP practice.

The electronic GP reports, produced in partnership with Niche Health, the software provider of iGPR, digitise the current inefficient paper-based process for all parties, improving patient data security and speeding up the process for GPs and insurers, and ultimately the patient/customer.

Scott Cadger, head of underwriting and claims strategy at Scottish Widows, said: “We’re constantly looking at how we can improve the customer experience. Electronic GP reports help us to add more digital capability into our protection sales process, speeding up the journey for advisers and clients, and resulting in terms being offered more quickly.

“They will also significantly reduce the number of policies that are not proceeded with due to the long period from initial submission date so, ultimately, more people will be covered as a result. This is part of our ongoing commitment to the protection market.”