[April 23, 2012]

Seminar to Bridge Gaps Between Medical Information and Insurance Underwriting

Executives from Hooper Holmes (NYSE Amex:HH) and Hannover Life Re will jointly present a program to help executives better understand how medical information and statistics can inform life insurance underwriting. The seminar will take place at the Association of Home Office Underwriters conference on Tuesday, May 1st at 3:30 p.m. at the Loew's Royal Pacific Resort in Orlando, Florida. David Winsemius, MD, MPH, Vice President and Medical Director, Heritage Labs, and Douglas Ingle, FALU, FLMI, Vice President, Underwriting Research, Hannover Life Re, will lead the session.

"Medical professionals often come to the insurance world with perceptions of risk based on experiences in emergency rooms or intensive care units," said Dr. David Winsemius. "There is an education process and cultural shift in risk perception that needs to happen as insurance medical directors adjust their expectations to align with long-term perspective of the insurance world. We believe that modern statistical methods are in some ways better than the traditional life table methods doctors are taught as part of their 'actuarial' indoctrination into insurance medicine."

"In general, doctors have strong intuitive notions of risk but many are not proficient mathematically. Some doctors have also lost touch with the data involved in the medical literature," Dr. Winsemius continued. "Our goal is to better align the methods we use in insurance medicine with the data available. We want to give them knowledge about the risk data that is being presented in the medical literature."

"We will be presenting an approach to applying useful information from the medical literature to risk analysis, risk stratification and insurance underwriting," said Douglas Ingle. "We believe the ability to turn medical information into underwriting guidelines and assessments should be more widely practiced by medical professionals in the insurance industry."

"We will talk about terminology, and illustrate some cases as examples," Mr. Ingle continued. "We will present various problems and show perspectives based on the medical literature. Our approach is to move from the case-based world of underwriting, into the medical literature and then back to the case."

David Winsemus MD, MPH, DBIM joined Hooper Holmes' Heritage Labs as Vice President, Medical Director in May 2008. Dr. Winsemius has deep experience as medical director for both direct and reinsurance companies, most recently serving as Vice President and Medical Director for ING, concentrating on brokerage underwriting and mortality analysis. Dr Winsemius received his MD from the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine and his Masters of Public Health from the University of Washington. He holds a number of professional certifications, including Board Certification in Insurance Medicine, Board Certification in Family Practice, and the Certificate of Added Qualifications in Geriatrics. He currently serves as the Chair of the Mortality and Morbidity Committee for the American Association for Insurance Medicine, and is the Chair of the Morbidity-Mortality Liaison Committee, a joint research project of SOA, AAIM and AHOU. His special interest is in applying modern bio-statistical methods to practical insurance problems.

Doug Ingle, FALU, FLMI, is Vice President of Underwriting Research for Hannover Life Re. He has over 37 years of underwriting experience split between direct writers and reinsurers. He completed Beginning and Advanced Life Table Methodology which studies methods for translating clinical medical research into mortality risk, co-founded PRiMA a program used for Preferred Risk underwriting and pricing, written a text on Interpreting resting EKG's for underwriters, authored 2 chapters of the ALU curriculum, current member of the ILEC (Individual Life Experience Committee) is former chair of both the MMLC (Morbidity Mortality Liaison Committee which conducts intercompany insured lives studies) and UESC (Underwriting Experience Studies Committee), has written for On The Risk, Journal of Insurance Medicine, Contingencies, Best Review, and spoken at many regional underwriting meetings as well numerous presentations at the national SOA (Society of Actuaries), AAIM (American Academy of Insurance Medicine), and AHOU (Association of Home Office Underwriters) meetings.

About Hooper Holmes

Hooper Holmes is a leader in collecting personal health data and transforming it into useful information, enabling customers to take actions that manage or reduce their risks and expenses. With presence in hundreds of markets and a network of thousands of examiners, Hooper Holmes can arrange a medical exam anywhere in the U.S. and deliver the results to its customers.

Hooper Holmes has four divisions. Portamedic provides a wide range of medical exam services nationwide. Heritage Labs tests millions of samples annually and helps life insurers improve underwriting performance by better applying the predictive powers of today's tests. Hooper Holmes Health & Wellness provides a complete service for wellness, disease management, and managed care companies including scheduling support, fulfillment of supplies, blood collection kits, medical screenings, lab testing and data transmission. Hooper Holmes Services reduces the insurance sales cycle through integrated data collection, tele-interviewing and underwriting services.

This press release contains "forward-looking" statements, as such term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on the Company's current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements are our ability to successfully implement our business strategy; uncertainty as to our working capital requirements over the next 12 to 24 months; our ability to maintain compliance with the financial covenant in our credit facility; our expectations regarding our operating cash flows; and the rate of life insurance application activity. Additional information about these and other factors that could affect the Company's business is set forth in the Company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 9, 2012. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law.

[ Back To SIP Trunking Home's Homepage ]