When you apply for a life insurance policy, you will be asked questions such as your age, height, weight, hobbies, level of physical activity, your general health, whether or not you’re are a smoker, your net worth, and your current salary. The next step involves you submitting to a medical exam. The medical exam will be arranged by the insurance company and can be performed by a medical professional at your home or office.
What do they look for in the exam?
During the medical exam, the medical professional will ask questions about any medical conditions you might have, past surgeries, what medications are taken?, family medical history, if you smoke and/or drink if you take recreational drugs, and if you engage in any high-risk activities such as skydiving or car racing. The medical professional will then perform some diagnostic tests which include:
- Taking your blood pressure and listening to your heart
- Taking your height and weight measurements
- Obtaining a blood and urine sample
- Performing or ordering additional tests deemed necessary such as chest X-rays, a treadmill test, and EKGs.
What happens after the medical exam?
After the medical exam has been completed, additional tests have been ordered, and your urine and blood samples have been analyzed, your application and medical results will be reviewed by an insurance underwriter. The insurance underwriter’s job is to decide if additional information needs to be obtained from your personal physician, etc. The insurance underwriter’s purpose is to get a complete picture of you, so that he/she can determine if you are an acceptable risk to the insurance company. If your policy is approved, the results of the information obtained during your medical exam will be used to calculate your insurance premium.
What happens if I am untruthful my application?
A lot of information can be obtained from your medical exams, such as if you are a smoker, etc., so you should attempt to be as honest as possible when filling out your insurance applications so that you aren’t denied coverage because you thought you could fool the insurance company. Misrepresentations on life insurance applications can be grounds for denying payments to beneficiaries, whether the misrepresentations are discovered early on or discovered at the time of your passing.