The chief executive of Australia's largest bank has admitted its CommInsure insurance business had used an outdated and discredited definition of a severe heart attack to deny some claims from clients, and said he would apologise to any customers who were adversely affected.
"I am saddened and disappointed by the handling of these cases," Commonwealth Bank of Australia Chief Executive Ian Narev said in a statement on Saturday. "I will personally write to the customers concerned to apologise and offer to meet with them face to face." Narev's statement followed a media investigation which revealed that CommInsure was reviewing its definition of a heart attack and may have been aware since mid-2014 that it was no longer best practice.
The CommInsure definition relies on the presence in the bloodstream of troponin, a protein which is released when the heart is damaged.
To be assessed as having had a heart attack, a CommInsure client must show a minimum level of 2 micrograms of troponin per litre of blood. However experts have condemned the definition, arguing that heart attacks cannot be diagnosed solely on the basis of troponin levels.
"If we're going to use 2 micrograms per litre as our threshold for diagnosing a heart attack, that's certainly out of date and not the standard we'd apply now," said Dr Andrew MacIsaac, president of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand.
MacIsaac said a range of factors needed to be taken into account when assessing a heart attack and its severity, including the patient's symptoms on arriving at hospital, the results of tests measuring the heart's electrical activity, and imaging to observe the heart's ability to expand and contract.
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