Speak with an experienced advisor! What is a Paramedical Exam? Also known as a Paramed Exam or simply a paramed, it is an exam done by a licensed and trained medical professional to assist in the purchase a life insurance policy. Below is a more full definition.
Some types of life insurance offer the option of NOT having a medical exam, while other require full underwriting. Policies that do not have a medical exam are often called non meds. This underwriting will more than likely require a visit by a home technician to exam you. How does this process work, why do they need to examine you, and what are the examining you for?
Lets Start off with the Basics.
What is an Paramed Exam from a Video.
Paramedical Exam Basics:
There are some very important aspects of life insurance Medical Exams:
- The exam is usually completed at a place of your choosing, such as your home or office.
- The exam is usually completed by a licensed and authorized medical professional.
- The exam is free for the consumer and paid for by the life insurance company. No money changes hands.
- The exam should last less than one hour.
- A medical exam may be the best way to get the lowest life insurance rate. However, this is not always the case.
- During the exam the medical technician, will weight and measure you. Not just your height but they may measure your chest and other body lengths.
- They may take blood and urine and saliva samples.
- In certain situations they may take an EKG. EKG stands for electrocardiogram.
An exam done by a certified medical professional, often either at your home or office, to assist a life insurance company in ascertaining your overall health profile for the purposes of offering a potential life insurance policy. During the exam the medical professional will discuses your current and past medical history. They will take your height, weight, and body measurements. The Medical Technician will also, take your heart rate and blood pressure. They may also take Urine, blood, and saliva samples and possibly perform an EKG. An EKG stands for electrocardiogram.
We have defined it as: "An exam done by a certified medical professional, often either at your home or office, to assist a life insurance company in ascertaining your overall health profile for the purposes of offering a potential life insurance policy. During the exam the medical professional will discuses your current and past medical history. They will take your height, weight, and body measurements. The Medical Technician will also, take your heart rate and blood pressure. They may also take Urine, blood, and saliva samples and possibly perform an EKG. An EKG stands for electrocardiogram."
Why You Need to Take a Paramed Exam.
Clients need to take a paramedical exam if they have chosen a fully underwritten form of life insurance. Term, Whole, Universal, you name it. However not all forms of life insurance require a full medical examination. You should consider discussing this with your agent BEFORE you apply for life insurance.
The paramed exam will help the life insurer to provide the most accurate life insurance offer possible. They will fully review the exam to propose a life insurance health class for you.
From a Time Standpoint - a life insurance paramed exam will usually take less than one hour.
Does Taking a Paramed Exam Guarantee me the lowest price?
No, it does not. Buying a Fully Underwritten Life Insurance Policy with a Paramed Exam does not Guarantee you the lowest rate.
Why is that?
It is always possible that the paramed exam may discover something that was previously not known or not known well. This "new information" will likely change the terms of a potential life insurance offer.
Now - that being said. Having a Paramed Examination does relatively guarantee a better rate, assuming your come out with a clean exam. In other words assuming they find nothing new than it financial speaking it makes sense to go for the medical examination. If you regularly visit your doctor and get a physical of your own and have no major health issues, I generally recommend a fully underwritten policy with the paramed exam.
What Exactly are they testing for during a Paramed Exam?
During a life insurance medical exam they are searching for lots and lots of things. It would not be possible to have a complete list for all insurance carriers. Partially because there are so many life insurance companies and partially because the list keeps growing.
However here is a partial list of what they are looking into:
- Confirming Smoking Status.
- Checking for Drug Use.
- Checking your height and weight build characteristics. Often this will mean that they take chest, stomach and other body measurements.
- Review your medical history for past illnesses and pharmaceuticals.
- Checking for Heart Disease and Stroke signals and markers.
- Checking for Diabetes.
- All forms of cholesterol. HDL, LDL, and Triglycerides.
- Presence of prescription or recreational drugs.
- The health of your liver.
- Markers for Kidney diseases.
- Markers for pancreatic diseases.
- The may also test you for HIV. Some states require specific forms to be signed when testing for HIV.
- There may be other considerations/tests.
How to Get the Most Out of a Paramed Exam.
Assuming you wish to pass your medical exam and hence pay the least amount on life insurance, you may consider doing some of the following. Please note that many of the recommendations that life insurance agents may give you, are just opinions and potentially not fully demonstrated from medical evidence.
- Cut down dramatically on high cholesterol and high salty foods for about 24 hours before the exam.
- Schedule the exam at a time of day that is calm and relaxing. For many this is 8 AM at their house before they have had coffee and smoked. You may even hold off eating anything if your exam is at this time.
- If you smoke, do not smoke before the exam. If you drink coffee, do not drink coffee before the exam.
- If you drink alcohol, do not drink alcohol before the exam.
- Get a good night of sleep before the exam.
- Drink plenty of water and stay hydrated for the 24 hours before.
- Do not participate in any strenuous and unusual activities days before your exam. In other words, do not run a marathon the day before.
- For women, it may make sense to consider your menstrual cycle when scheduling your exam.
- Tell your medical professional about any fears of examination that you may have. If you are fearful of certain procedures, just tell them you are.
- Reschedule the exam if you think the timing of the exam will be stressful.
- Relax. This can not be over stated.
Questions? We are here to help.
Life Insurance is complicated business, we are here to help. Do you have a simple question about life insurance or paramed exams? Give us a call or email us - we are more than happy to help.
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A Note about Paramedical Exams:
Not all paramedical or paramed (for short) exams are the same. Different insurance companies require different tests at varying values of life insurance coverage. This article is intended to be informative and useful without being overly complicated and too in depth. It is possible that you could apply for life insurance policy and there is some sort of test required either not expected or listed in this article. Many of the rules and regulations about what is legally allowed is governed by your state specific insurance regulator..
Do you have any questions about life insurance, feel free to ask.
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