Solutions, Life & Health, Group Life

When the claim is contestable

Within the contestability window, every line of the application matters, and whether the application was true rarely lives inside your CMS. Owl reads the medicals, the application and the death certificate, then layers in pre-application Rx history, EHR pulls, beneficiary context and fraud signals.

2-yr contestability lookbackApp date → DOL
Internal, applicationApp, 2024-06-12
Application Q14 answered "no" to heart disease, hypertension or related
External, EHR2023-11-02
I10 hypertension diagnosis at primary care visit
External, Surescripts2024-01-08
Atorvastatin prescribed
External, MIB2024-03-19
MIB record, cardiac risk stratification
Internal, death certificate2025-09-30
Cause of death I21.4, acute MI

14 mo

Within contestability window

2 events

Pre-application disclosures missing

I21.4

COD tied to undisclosed condition

03A real claim, walked end to end

One claim: $1.5M Group Life, 14 months in.

Anonymized composite. Decedent R.T., 51, COD acute MI 2025-09-30. Application dated 2024-06-12. Within the policy’s 24-month contestability window.

Claim #
GL-2025-0930-R
LOB
Group Life, 24mo contest
Face
$1,500,000
App date
2024-06-12
DOD
2025-09-30
OwlVision
What it read
Death certificate
1 pp
Read, Indexed, Cited
Application + medical questionnaire
24 pp
Read, Indexed, Cited
Beneficiary designation history
6 pp
Read, Chain traced
Medical records (24mo lookback)
318 pp
Read, Contradiction flagged
Police report
22 pp
Read, Indexed, Cited
Structured extraction
COD I21.4 (acute MI). App 2024-06-12 Q14 answered “no” to heart disease, hypertension, related. EHR shows I10 hypertension dx 2023-11-02 (pre-app). Rx history shows atorvastatin 2024-01-08 (pre-app). Beneficiary designation chain: 2023-04 spouse → 2024-08-19 spouse (current) → 2025-09-19 cousin (11 days pre-DOD)
OwlSignal
What the world said about the claimant

External data only. None of this lives in your CMS. Owl gathered it from public records, professional networks, registries and the open web, then resolved it to this claimant.

CLM-08
Pre-application Rx history, Surescripts

Pulled atorvastatin (40mg) prescribed 2024-01-08, 5 months before the application. The application’s Q14 answered “no” to “heart disease, hypertension, or related.” Material-misrepresentation pattern.

Surescripts Rx historyMIB record
CLM-08
External EHR pull, pre-app diagnosis

Datavant / state HIE pull confirms I10 hypertension diagnosed 2023-11-02, 7 months before application. Causally related to COD.

Datavant HL7 / state HIEEHR provenance log
STAT-02
Beneficiary change, 11 days pre-DOD

Most recent beneficiary designation dated 2025-09-19, naming a cousin. Public records show the designated cousin moved into decedent’s residence 6 weeks before the change. Undue-influence pattern; flagged for legal review.

USPS NCOACounty voter rollsProperty records
ADV-03
Beneficiary, related civil filing

A civil filing in another county lists the most-recently-named beneficiary in a contested-estate matter against another family member, dated 2024-12-04.

County court docketName + DOB match
OwlAssist
What it answered
Examiner asked
Was the cause of death disclosed in the original application, and is the file rescindable?
Owl answered in 1.6s

Partially disclosed. The application (2024-06-12) answered “no” to question 14 (heart disease, hypertension, or related). The external EHR shows a hypertension diagnosis (I10) on 2023-11-02 and atorvastatin prescribed 2024-01-08, both predating the application. Cause of death (I21.4, acute MI) is causally related to the undisclosed condition. Under the policy’s 24-month contestability clause and applicable state law, the file is supportable for rescission with refund of premium.

Application 2024-06-12 Q14EHR 2023-11-02Rx hx 2024-01-08DC 2025-09-30Policy §6.1 contestability
Examiner asked
What does the beneficiary chain look like and is there an undue-influence concern?
Owl answered in 0.9s

Chain: 2023-04 spouse (original) → 2024-08-19 spouse (re-confirmed at coverage renewal) → 2025-09-19 cousin (11 days pre-DOD). The cousin moved into decedent’s residence 6 weeks before the change of designation. Public records show an active estate-related civil filing involving the cousin. Recommend hold on disbursement pending legal review and beneficiary interpleader if challenged.

Beneficiary form 2025-09-19USPS NCOA 2025-08-04Property records 2024-04-19County court 2024-12-04
04OwlSignal external data

What the world says about your Group Life claimants, none of which lives in your CMS.

Internal claim data is half the picture: it tells you what the claimant told you. OwlSignal continuously gathers external data (public records, professional and corporate registries, court dockets, social and open web) and matches it back to the claimant. These are the families that move the needle on Group Life.

CLMApplication contestability

The application was a snapshot. Owl pulls the rest of the world from that period (Rx history, MIB, EHR) and tests every answered question against external evidence. None of it is in your CMS today.

Surescripts Rx historyMIB recordDatavant / state HIE EHR pullLab provider history
STATBeneficiary public-records context

Beneficiary changes pre-death require context the file can’t supply. Address moves, cohabitation, marriage / divorce, court-record co-occurrence: sourced externally and matched.

USPS NCOACounty property recordsVoter rollsMarriage / divorce dockets
ADVAdverse Reports: decedent and beneficiaries

Court filings, criminal records, civil-estate matters, sanctions, adverse media: surfaced for both the decedent and the beneficiaries, because Group Life adjudication often reaches both.

PACER + state courtsCounty criminal recordsAdverse-media corporaProbate filings
INCFinancial-distress signals

Bankruptcy filings, judgment liens, large recent debt: the financial-distress pattern that, paired with a contestable application, sometimes signals deliberate misrepresentation.

Federal bankruptcy filingsCounty judgment recordsUCC liensForeclosure filings
NETProducer & broker network

The producer or broker who wrote the application, scored against cross-carrier outcomes, useful when contestability findings cluster around a single source of business.

Cross-carrier producer outcomesNIPR licensure historyState DOI producer actions
Refreshed daily, matched by identity-resolution, every observation cited to its source.
05What changes

Numbers from L&H carriers running Owl on Group Life in production.

MetricWithout OwlWith Owl
Contestability files reviewed in full41%100%
Avg cycle on contestable claims94 days21 days
Misrepresentation discovery rate4.8%11.2%
Beneficiary-dispute pre-detection17%78%
Standard claim cycle (clear-pay)11 days3 days
Cost per contestable file$2,840$610
Source: rolling 12-month average across 5 L&H carriers, Group Life only, n = 14,400 claims.

Built for the regulatory shape of Group Life.

HIPAABAA executed before any PHI is processed. Minimum-necessary by default. PHI never leaves your tenant.
Contestability lawState-by-state contestability and incontestability rules. Configurable per policy form.
NAIC Model #672UCSPA: every Owl-assisted decision cited and auditable.
Beneficiary lawSlayer rules, divorce-revocation statutes, undue-influence flags by state.
Reg AI / NYDFSBias testing, model documentation, human-in-the-loop on every adverse decision.
SOC 2 Type IIAnnual audit. Continuous controls monitoring. Report available under NDA.
External data lawful basisOwlSignal sources are public-records or publicly-available. FCRA-aware sourcing flag on every observation.
Interpleader & legal holdDisbursement holds wired into your claim system on a single examiner action.
07Integrations

Lives where your Group Life files live.

Claim systems

FINEOS, Guidewire ClaimCenter, DCS, DXC

Document intake

Box, OnBase, Documentum, ImageRight

Pharmacy

Surescripts, ScriptCheck, MIB Rx history

EHR / records

Epic, Cerner, MRO, Verisma, Ciox/Datavant

Public records

USPS NCOA, county property + court, vital records

Identity & SSO

Okta, Azure AD, PingFederate, SAML, SCIM

08Get started

Bring us a contestable file. We’ll show you what the application missed.

Two-week pilot. Your records, your tenant, your contestability rules. We measure misrep discovery, cycle time, and decision quality against your own ground truth.