Client taking Belbuca for pain. Denied from trans. wtf Transamerica!

[Stay100]

I have a 63-year-old male non-smoker who takes Belbuca for long term chronic back pain. Belbuca is marketed for pain, not an opioid replacement. I originally wrote him with Transamerica because I have had success getting previous clients approved for taking suboxone or methadone for pain. Maybe they changed their underwriting guidelines on this? Or maybe the assigned underwriter is just an asshole (he is)? I was going to try foresters tomorrow. What company would you use? Thanks in advance.

P.S. Anyone else get the feeling that Transamerica FE is going way downhill? They used to be my go to but they suck now. They are not consistent, take way to long to process new business and have the stupidest requirements! Why don't they have a freaking E app!? Ever since they outsourced the new business dept. shit hit the fan!

 

[Baseball7]

Out sourced new business???

 

[HoosierLife]

Trans has changed some of their UW. Never got a notice or anything, but they released a new agent guide in February.

Biggest difference was that controlled asthma is now considered chronic if they fill an inhaler more than 6 months out of the year.

We used to be able to push that through by telling them that the client only used it as needed a couple times a month.

If it was used more than once a week, it was considered chronic, which is fine, but our people get their meds for free or for just a couple bucks. Sometimes they just fill stuff to fill stuff.

Who has not been in a house that has a dozen unopened boxes of albuterol lying around the house?? Now those folks are trans std.

All that to say, they may have changed how they take certain medications.

Always check RX Mobile Look Up - Search

 

[goillini52]

Trans has changed some of their UW. Never got a notice or anything, but they released a new agent guide in February.

Biggest difference was that controlled asthma is now considered chronic if they fill an inhaler more than 6 months out of the year.

We used to be able to push that through by telling them that the client only used it as needed a couple times a month.

If it was used more than once a week, it was considered chronic, which is fine, but our people get their meds for free or for just a couple bucks. Sometimes they just fill stuff to fill stuff.

Who has not been in a house that has a dozen unopened boxes of albuterol lying around the house?? Now those folks are trans std.

All that to say, they may have changed how they take certain medications.

Always check RX Mobile Look Up - Search

I've got 2 hardly used inhalers laying around and 1 still in the box. Even before bacon cured my COPD, an inhaler would last me over 6 months. There're 200 puffs in an inhaler. I told my Doctor that those things are about useless, because you have to catch your breath before you can use it.

I just checked and all 3 expired in January. Oh, the wonders of bacon.

 

[WinoBlues]

Never got a notice or anything, but they released a new agent guide in February.

They go by the agent guide?!?

If it was used more than once a week, it was considered chronic, which is fine, but our people get their meds for free or for just a couple bucks. Sometimes they just fill stuff to fill stuff.

Same with VA. Many meds are automatically mailed.

 

[Baseball7]

Biggest difference was that controlled asthma is now considered chronic if they fill an inhaler more than 6 months out of the year.

Always been the rule

 

[HoosierLife]

Always been the rule

Nope they added the rule in February.

 

[Baseball7]

I was taught that interpretation like two years ago.

 

[HoosierLife]

I was taught that interpretation like two years ago.

I don’t know why you’re arguing with me. I’ve written about $400k with Trans just over the past few years.

For years and years, I could get asthma/albuterol pushed through by writing on the supplemental health form “no copd, uses inhalers a few times a month.”

Started adding that AFTER they started pushing those cases standard as chronic because of continuous refills. They started approving preferred. This was years ago.

Then I have dozens of agents that write trans who I have told to do and write the same things in those circumstances. All getting pushed through preferred.

Until a few weeks ago, a agent did what he’s done for the past 8 months (he’s on track to do over $300k this year...first full year in FE.) But this time Trans pushed it standard BECAUSE of what he wrote on the supplemental health form and the fact that they fill it every month.

So I went to look, assuming Trans made a change to Underwriting without telling anyone. Like when they added the new SSBA form and like when they added the code and a new form. They like to keep updates hidden so they can send out a bunch of amendments, I guess.

And, lo and behold, they HAD released a new Underwriting guide in February of this year.

So I’m glad that you were prophetic in your future understanding of how they would one day make a change to their Underwriting, but before it changed, my team and myself were getting our clients approved preferred.

 

[Baseball7]

Since getting re-contracted with TA I’ve seen a decreased quality in there new business processing. Yea, I’m not as sharp on my trans app as I was but I realized there are better companies to sell. I fully expect when there e-app comes out we’ll have a far different FE product on our hands.