CommInsure extends heart attack definitions date

CommInsure has announced it will extend its heart attack definitions back further to include customer claims from October 2012, following the corporate regulator’s report into its claims handling processes.

CommInsure said it was the right decision for their customers in absence of consistent definitions across the industry.

The firm said it would continue to advocate for:

• Industry initiatives to achieve a better balance between retirement outcomes and life insurance;
• The use of plain English and regulatory assistance to implement standardised definitions; and
• Changes to make it easier to rationalise legacy products and reduce the costs to customers.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commissions (ASIC) report said CommInsure did have improvements to make, for example, better and timelier communications with consumers and enhanced training and assistance for claims managers.

The report also found that its medical definitions were out of date, but that this was not against the law and that CommInsure had since updated its medical definitions.

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CommInsure noted that the report found no evidence to support allegations that CommInsure claims managers applied undue pressure on doctors to change or alter their medical opinions, no evidence of ‘cherry picking’ doctors, no claims handling breaches of the law, no significant increase in surveillance, and no evidence that medical opinions stored on the database were deleted or altered.