VIDEO: Acing the Life Insurance Medical Exam

March 9th, 2012 | Author: Mitch Reynolds

How to Prepare for The Para-Medical Exam for Insurance

Life & Health Insurance Underwriting Needs a Medical Exam

When you go to purchase life insurance (or other insurances like disability insurance or critical illness insurance) you actually apply for the coverage from the life insurance company. You don’t actually own it at the time of application. You have to be approved for coverage through the underwriting process.

medical exam insurance One of the key compenents of underwriting is the para-medical exam. This is when a nurse or medical technician visits you (usually at home) and completes a detailed examination, taking height, weight, blood pressure, a blood and urine sample, and asking you lots of questions about your health. The answers to these questions are recorded and compared to what you told your insurance broker when he/she took the original application and compared to any records acquired from your doctor.

It really helps if you can put your best foot forward when completing the para-medical exam, to give the insurance company the very best picture of your health. In order to ACE this medical exam or test you can prepare for it. Don’t just do your medical exam at any time of the day and after you have had little sleep, high stress and just eaten a heavy meal. Here are my tips to acing the para-medical exam:

Fast at least 8 hours, preferably 12 hours. This helps give you the best blood cholesterol readings and baseline blood sugar readings. After fasting your blood will look as good as it possibly can under a microscope.
Don’t drink coffee or juice in the morning before your exam – it will mess up all the good fasting you have done.
Take soluble fibre once or twice per day before the test. This is like Metamucil that you mix in water. It will help reduce you cholesterol by a little bit on you ratio and can help you shed some excess water weight.
Eat healthy foods the day before the exam. No fried food, fast food, alcohol consumption, etc.
Plan to do the test at a low stress time of day, like mornings on the weekend when you are not rushed for work and can easily fast over night and have a later breakfast. Low stress will keep your blood pressure optimal on the test.
Don’t do strenuous exercise before the para-medical exam. Unless you are used to working out hard every day, it will cause you to have excess proteins in the blood which can be a sign of disease.
If you are feeling sick or have a cold/flu, re-book your appointment. Doing the test while you’re sick will throw off all your vital statistics on the test.

Be prepared for the para-medical exam. Make yourself look as good to the insurance underwriters as you possibly can. It might mean the difference between getting preferred rates (discounts) or paying the standard rate that everyone gets. It also might mean the difference between getting rated (asked to pay more on the insurance) or getting a standard life insurance policy.

So, in the end this is all about money. The price you will pay for insurance is based on the risk you present to the insurance company. The healthier you loook, the lower price you will have to pay.

We hope this video tip was useful. Leave your comments below and suggestions for future videos you would like to see from Life Guard Insurance.

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