Protection Guru has launched “Designed by Doctors” – a series of recommended and updated example critical illness definitions covering conditions such as heart attacks, total permanent disability, multiple sclerosis among others.
The ambition is to ensure the best possible patient outcomes by improving the clarity of policy wordings and ensuring alignment with the latest medical practice.
With the introduction of Consumer Duty placing an unprecedented spotlight on the quality of protection products, Protection Guru brought together an independent medical committee of doctors and epidemiologists to create new example wordings for critical illness policies.
The committee revisited 10 key Critical Illness conditions to identify unnecessary complexity and obsolete medical terminology.
While Critical Illness policies are legal documents and by nature must include complex medical terms, wording should be easy for qualified medical professionals to understand, which is not always the case.
This is the test the medical committee has applied in creating these new standards.
Ian McKenna (pictured), Protection Guru founder, said: “By producing our example wordings for clarity and accuracy, we can offer insurers and reinsurers impartial guidance on keeping their policies in line with contemporary medical practice.
“Since we launched our original critical illness benchmarking in 2017, we have been able to work with many individual insurers to simplify and improve wordings for consumers.
“This is the next phase of this work through which we are looking to raise standards across the industry.”
He added: “It is crucial to recognise we are not seeking to encourage adoption of a single or standard Critical Illness wording. That would be counterproductive.
“Stimulating competition is core to our objectives. We are however looking to demonstrate that wordings can be better than they are today.
“As Critical Illness policies were originally invented by a doctor, the late Marius Barnard, we see reengaging with medical professionals as a very natural step to protect consumers.”
Critical illness wordings were first benchmarked in 1991 by the National Federation of independent financial advisors, which subsequently became the IFA Association and IFA Portfolio.
Adviser firms using the Protection Guru Pro service will next year be able to use a “Designed by Doctors” assessment when recommending insurers who meet the medical committee’s benchmarks for clarity and reflect latest medical practice.
Dr Adam Hazel, chair of the Protection Guru independent medical panel and founder of Harley Street-based Tyburn Medical Practice said: “Medicine, diagnostics and treatment is moving at a pace never seen before and is continuing to accelerate.
“It cannot be in the interests of consumers for policy wordings to be based on measurements and diagnostic techniques that the medical profession has moved on from.”
Johnny Timpson OBE, the Financial Inclusion Commissioner, added: “Consumer research has shown previously that one of the reasons consumers buy critical illness plans is the certainty of a payout they can rely on.
“This only works properly for them if we keep wordings as clear as possible and in line with medical practice. It is essential the definitions are both accurate and keep patient outcomes front of mind.”
Keith Richards, CEO of the Consumer Duty Alliance, continued: “Any initiative that makes wordings clearer and more up-to-date, must be a huge step forward and aligns with the expectations of Consumer Duty.
“When it comes to critical illness plans, inevitably there will be some medical terms that most of us struggle with, which is why initiatives like this are so important.
“People with serious illnesses will be talking to their physicians regularly, so putting wordings into language doctors can easily understand is a natural and welcome development.”
McKenna was keen demonstrate that this new work does not conflict with the existing work by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) on minimum standards which was passed over from the IFAA in 1999.
He added: “In addition to embedding this work in our Protection Guru Pro research system, we hope to see partnerships with other quotation services, client portals and product research suppliers embracing our medical committee’s work and benchmarking.”
LifeSearch CEO, Debbie Kennedy, observed: “Achieving the best outcomes for consumers is core to our DNA at LifeSearch.
“We are delighted to see this independent “Designed by Doctors” analysis, which brings new transparency about where and how policy wordings need to advance, to achieve the best results and much-needed clarity for families.”
Finally, Phil Jeynes, director of corporate strategy at Reassured, concluded: “It was clear last year that the ABI process needed a refresh. This is an outstanding piece of work produced by Protection Guru and the medical committee looking at how we can make wordings fit for purpose again.
“It is great to see organisations in our industry challenging the status quo with a view to affecting positive change.”
