Another Urgent Care-Insurance Initiative; But It’s Not What You Think

The comingling of urgent care and insurance has become so common that it scarcely raises headlines at this point. A new initiative involving GoHealth Urgent Care is a bit different, however. The company is teaming up with Force Diagnostics , a clinical underwriting data services company, to offer expedited physical exams for life insurance applicants. Currently, the standard practice when an individual applies for a life insurance policy is for a healthcare provider to be dispatched to the applicant’s home or place of employment—a convenience for some applicants but an intrusion for others. With lab work and the existing reporting process to follow, it can take up to 60 days between the exam and the ultimate approval or denial of the policy. Under the GoHealth and Force Diagnostics plan, the applicant can go to a GoHealth location at their convenience, have the same level of exam as is done in the traditional home visit, and complete all the steps required by the underwriter within 48 hours. Their plan is to launch the program in northern California this month, then add more regions later in the year. GoHealth says they expect the idea to catch on because it will “remove friction” from the process for both the underwriter and the applicant.