AMP Updates Medical Definitions After Review

0

AMP has updated three medical definitions related to cancer, Parkinson’s disease and cardiac arrest following an annual review of all definitions for products on-sale and off-sale.

As a result of this review, the updated definitions, which are effective from the 3 September 2018 make the following changes:

  • Cancer – removed the AIDs exclusion and Kaposi’s sarcoma (as it is often related to AIDS) – this change is only relevant to legacy inforce products
  • Parkinson’s disease – clarified the Parkinson’s disease definition
  • Cardiac arrest-out of hospital or Out of hospital cardiac arrest – updated the definition to allow for other medical evidence if an ECG is inconclusive or not available.

The specific changes related to the clarification of the Parkinson’s disease definition are a new wording which includes confirmation by a geriatrician, and that symptoms of the disease result from the degeneration of the nigrostriatal system.

The new wording will be as follows (changes in bold):

Parkinson’s disease means an unequivocal diagnosis of degenerative idiopathic Parkinson’s disease confirmed by a consultant neurologist or geriatrician, as characterised by the clinical manifestation of one or more of the following:

  • Rigidity
  • Tremor, and
  • Akinesia

resulting in from the degeneration of the nigrostriatal system.

The new wording will apply to AMP Elevate products from 2009 onwards and some legacy Australian Casualty and Life, AXA Risk Protection Package and Group standalone products.

Specific changes to the cardiac arrest definition will include a new wording with an addition related to ECG testing. The new wording will be as follows (changes in bold):

Cardiac arrest that is the sudden breakdown of the heart‘s pumping function where it:

  • Is due to asystole or ventricular fibrillation as documented by electrocardiographic (ECG) changes and
  • Is not associated with any clinical procedure, and
  • Is documented by electrocardiographic (ECG) changes, and
  • Occurs outside a hospital or other medical facility.

Additionally, AMP has added the following to the cardiac arrest definition wording:

If electrocardiogram changes are inconclusive or an ECG is not available, we will consider medical evidence which is acceptable to us that unequivocally confirms an out of hospital cardiac arrest has occurred. Examples of suitable evidence includes but is not limited to: Ambulance and Hospital Medical Reports confirming cardiac arrest or the administration of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) by an attending ambulance officer or trained first aid officer or Automated External Defibrillator (AED) data.

The new wording will apply to AMP Elevate products from 2009 onwards and some legacy Australian Casualty and Life, AXA Risk Protection Package, AMP Crisis Care, AMP Endowment, AMP WOL products and some legacy and current Group standalone products.