The Prescription for the Medical Notes Messing Up Your (Insurance) Business  

Introduction

Scribbled prescriptions and messy doctors’ notes are no joke, as we explained in part one of this blog series. They have serious consequences, especially for underwriting… 

There’s No Overstating Underwriting’s Impact  

Life and health insurers rely heavily on Attending Physician Statements (APS) to complete the underwriting process. These statements, compiled from a patient’s medical history, are often packed with vital information, but they’re rarely standardized. Many include scans of handwritten doctor’s notes or loosely formatted PDF reports, which are difficult to read and even harder to analyze with automation digital tools. 

Even with optical character recognition (OCR) and natural language processing (NLP), AI tools hit limits when the input data is inconsistent, low quality, or illegible. Underwriting teams may spend hours combing through records, manually interpreting information, and trying to fill in gaps. These inefficiencies result in: 

• Slower turnaround times for decisioning on an application 
• Increased operational costs 
• Lower customer satisfaction and Net Promoter Score (NPS) 
• Higher policy dropout rates 

What’s more, messy data compromises risk accuracy, which can lead to over- or underpricing, and regulatory challenges. 

Modern underwriting solutions are designed to integrate clean, structured medical data into their decisioning engines. When this data is accessible and well-structured, automation tools become far more effective. Rules engines operate more precisely. Risk assessments become more consistent. Human underwriters can focus on edge cases instead of data cleanup. 

We’re Seeing the Shift!  

Fortunately, the problem of illegible handwriting is being erased. The healthcare industry is undergoing a rapid transformation. Today, a growing number of physicians – especially digital-native younger professionals – are embracing electronic health records (EHRs), digital apps, voice dictation tools, and structured digital forms. 

Hospitals and clinics are moving away from paper-based workflows, driven by a combination of factors: 

• Technology adoption: mobile devices and cloud-based EHRs are now affordable and widely available. 
• Regulatory pressure: governments and regulatory bodies in many markets are encouraging — even mandating — the use of standardized digital health records. 
• Incentives: programs that reward value-based care and data interoperability accelerate change. 
• Cultural shift: new generations of clinicians expect digital tools to be part of their daily practice. 

As more healthcare providers digitize, insurers stand to benefit. The “hit rate” for digital medical records is rising, meaning underwriters have a better chance of accessing usable data early in the application process. This leads to faster underwriting cycles, higher placement rates, and a better customer experience. 

Safer Patients, Smarter Insurance 

The benefits of digitization ripple across the entire ecosystem. It’s not just about making underwriters’ lives easier, though that’s certainly a bonus. It’s about building a smarter, safer, more connected system for everyone involved. 

• Patients receive safer, more coordinated care with fewer preventable mistakes. 
• Healthcare providers gain tools that improve efficiency and clinical decision-making. 
• Insurers are empowered to further automate, reduce operational burdens, and offer faster, fairer coverage with informed data. 

It’s important for life insurers to obtain a platform built to ingest, interpret, and apply structured medical data with speed and precision. Advanced solutions can bridge the gap between digitized healthcare and intelligent insurance, creating shared value for every stakeholder. 

Time to Transform 

Illegible handwriting may feel like a relic from another era, but it’s still very much part of the present. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be part of the future. 

As healthcare providers modernize their workflows, insurers must be ready to do the same. That means adopting flexible, modern technology platforms that are ready to process structured health data in real time. It means embracing automation, AI, and data interoperability – not as buzzwords, but as practical tools for better underwriting and better business outcomes. 

It’s time to retire from the squinting, the guesswork, and the delays. Let’s build a world where underwriting is powered by intelligence, not impeded by ink. 

Because in both healthcare and insurance, legibility isn’t just a convenience, and it’s not a joke! It’s a catalyst for transformation. 

Sapiens Can Help! 

Check out our modern platform and solutions.