title: Severity criteria for critical illness insurance definitions.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Definitions for critical illness insurance must be updated to reflect increasing incidence of covered events and improvements in screening, diagnosis and treatment.
  
  
  METHODS
  Examples are provided for ways to future-proof definitions via use of severity criteria.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The desired effect could be achieved by adding severity criteria as follows: myocardial infarction--ejection fraction, troponin level, or functional class; stroke--Modified Rankin Scale; and cancer--scaled benefits in proportion to probability of survival.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Severity criteria can limit the increase in critical illness claims that is expected based on improvements in screening and diagnostic tests, thereby keeping the price affordable while retaining the features that have made this product so successful.
authors.affiliation: Gen Re LifeHealth, Financial Centre, 695 East Main St, Stamford, CT 06901, USA. pokorski@genre.com
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Pokorski
mesh_terms: D016638:Critical Illness / Q000145:classification*; D006801:Humans; D007352:Insurance, Life; D020379:Risk Adjustment; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014481:United States