Friends Life has made coverage changes to its Protect+ Critical Illness Cover (CIC) offering based on the product's claims history.
Changes include the addition of Significant Visual Loss conditions and enhancements to both stroke and childcover definitions.
Childcover benefit has been updated to include cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy. Friends Life has also improved Protect+ so that children are eligible for cover from birth, even if the condition is diagnosed during pregnancy, as long as the policy was in force prior to diagnosis.
Further enhancements include changes to the definition of stroke so that, where there is clear medical evidence, claims for stroke are paid more quickly without relying on the need to demonstrate permanent neurological deficit.
In addition, the additional condition of Significant Visual Loss offering a partial payout up to £25,000 for permanent and irreversible deterioration of sight.
Steve Payne, managing director of Protection at Friends Life said: "What we do whenever we add things to our contracts is to look at our claims. We look at the claims we paid and their conditions, plus those that we were not able to pay because claimants who thought they were covered were not.
"We are not aiming for the greatest number of conditions, we aim for a good breadth and cover.
"Last year claims for child cover made up a significant proportion of all the claims made over our critical illness products, hence the improvement in our child cover.
"We are the only one of a handful offering cover on congenital conditions and we have improved that further, specifically by removing the 30 days old restriction on children's benefits."
