Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2017L01057:reg:7
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2017L01057
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 7
Character Range: 1617–3501

7               Kind of injury, disease or death to which this Statement of Principles relates
(1)          This Statement of Principles is about rheumatoid arthritis and death from rheumatoid arthritis.
Meaning of rheumatoid arthritis
(2)          For the purposes of this Statement of Principles, rheumatoid arthritis means:
(a)          a symmetric, inflammatory, peripheral polyarthritis persisting for a continuous period of at least six weeks, characterised by inflammatory synovitis; and
(b)          excludes juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and non-rheumatoid conditions that may have similar clinical features, such as psoriatic arthritis, acute viral polyarthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus and polyarticular gout.
Note: Rheumatoid arthritis usually involves peripheral joints, including cartilage damage and bone erosions and changes in joint integrity as manifestations of established disease.  In addition, extra-articular manifestations are common.
(3)          While rheumatoid arthritis attracts ICD‑10‑AM code M05 or M06, in applying this Statement of Principles the meaning of rheumatoid arthritis is that given in subsection (2).
(4)          For subsection (3), a reference to an ICD‑10‑AM code is a reference to the code assigned to a particular kind of injury or disease in The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision, Australian Modification (ICD‑10‑AM), Ninth Edition, effective date of 1 July 2015, copyrighted by the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority, ISBN 978‑1‑76007‑020‑5.
Death from rheumatoid arthritis
(5)          For the purposes of this Statement of Principles, rheumatoid arthritis, in relation to a person, includes death from a terminal event or condition that was contributed to by the person's rheumatoid arthritis.
Note: terminal event is defined in the Schedule 1 – Dictionary.