Introduction
Peripheral Neuropathy is a condition where the nerves that relay messages to and from the brain, spinal cord and body are damaged or diseased. Most commonly affecting diabetics but also caused by traumatic injuries or infections.
Please find our proposed rating for Peripheral neuropathy below.
Sub-items rating review
Notes
Peripheral neuropathy has a low weighting in our Research database. Most insurers have the same stance towards this condition, with Asteron Life recently removing their drug and alcohol exclusion. While most insurers use the same assessment criteria to qualify for payment: 1) insured must have the inability to perform one or more Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) or 2) a 25% permanent whole person impairment, Asteron only has one of these (which according to our methodology is a difference). When we further investigated how this definition might be applied to other insurers, it became clear that practically, access to a qualified medical practitioner who can perform an assessment, diagnosing permanent impairment may be a challenge for clients outside our larger cities. ACC also uses this permanent impairment criteria for lump sum claims, however very little information can be found elsewhere. Overall, existing data does suggest that claims for this condition are quite low, so we conclude that the definition for all insurers is functionally similar in this case.
Your feedback
We value getting your feedback on how these wordings are being applied to claims you may be aware of. Please email us with details of any recent claims to help us update our understanding.
Doreen Dutt, Research Analyst, Quality Product Research Limited, [email protected]