We are with you in valuing your privacy and will always work hard to look after the information you entrust to us. This is our Southern Cross Medical Care Society (“Southern Cross”) Privacy Statement and explains the ways we routinely deal with your information, but during your relationship with us we may tell you more about how we will handle your information.

When you are covered by a Southern Cross health insurance policy you agree to us handling your information in the ways set out here. We may also update this statement so please check back from time to time.

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How may we use your information? 

We use your information to be with you when you need us most – when you apply for a policy and when you want to claim. We also use your information to tell you about products or services we think you’d be interested in and to help us personalise and improve your experience with us and other Southern Cross branded businesses.

We may use your information:

• to consider your eligibility for cover under the policy and any specific terms applying to the policy (including any pre-existing conditions),
• to administer the policy and your membership with the Society including annual general meetings,
• to process, investigate and review any enquiries, prior approvals or claims made on your policy,
• to help administer products and services you take up with other Southern Cross-branded businesses,
• to understand, improve and personalise your experience with us and with other Southern Cross branded businesses,
• for marketing, including telling you about products, services and offers from us, other Southern Cross branded businesses, or our partners. We may do this by contacting you directly or via another Southern Cross-branded business. We also use advertising technologies for targeted online advertising to provide relevant messages to you and others on our own and third parties’ websites. You can opt out by contacting us on 0800 800 181 or by clicking the unsubscribe function included in our electronic marketing communications,
• to develop and improve what we offer. This includes products, partnerships, systems, and member outcomes, and to meet audit and compliance requirements. We use anonymised or de-identified data to do this wherever possible and always when we present the results,
• to prevent, detect, or investigate fraud or suspected fraud,
• to conduct research and analysis to assist with any of the above purposes,
• where permitted or required by law.

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How do we collect and share your information?

We exchange information with the policyholder about everyone covered on their policy including notifying them of prior approvals and claims submitted for anyone on the policy. The partner or spouse of the policyholder can access limited information about anyone else on the policy. When we receive a prior approval or claim we exchange information with the health service providing your treatment. We may exchange information with third parties such as ACC, other Southern Cross branded businesses, and the administrator of any group scheme you belong to. Insurance advisors associated with your policy can access most information on it to help provide their services to you.

This section sets out the parties we collect your information from and disclose it to:

• The policyholder can submit or view information about anyone covered on their policy, including details of plan change quotes, prior approvals and claims submitted by anyone on the policy. The policyholder can also authorise third parties to access information about anyone else covered by their policy.
• The spouse or partner of the policyholder (if covered by the policy) can update some policy details, submit and view most prior approvals, and access information about others on the policy on request.
• When we receive a prior approval or claim we exchange information with the provider or facility providing the health service or treatment. This is to assess, review or assist with administration of the prior approval or claim. If we need information from your GP or another health provider to assess a prior approval or claim we will let you know.
• Affiliated Providers and Easy Claim Providers can access limited policy details to help accurately submit prior approvals and claims directly to us on your behalf.
• Financial and Insurance Advisers the policyholder has authorised - including those who advise on a work scheme the policyholder is part of - can access information about everyone covered on the policy to enable them to provide you with their services.
• Other Southern Cross branded businesses may exchange information with Southern Cross for the purposes listed in this statement, including but not limited to contact details, demographic information, the products, services or partner offers you have taken up, and your communication preferences. No medical declarations or claims information will be exchanged without your consent.
• Administrators of a work or association scheme we exchange limited identifiable information with the policyholder to administer the scheme, including determining eligibility, applying discounts and subsidies. We will never share your identifiable health or claims information.
• If your prior approval or claim appears to relate to an accident or treatment injury we may check whether there is an ACC claim for the same matter. We will get your consent before exchanging any further information with ACC.
• Trusted partners may tell us you have taken up an offer or discount available to members so we can check eligibility, administer it, and help us understand uptake. We may tell you more when you take up a particular partner offer or discount.
• The policyholder can authorise third parties to access anyone’s information on the policy. If you’re not the policyholder you can only authorise access to your own information.
• We collect information via cookies and similar technologies when you use our apps and websites, or open emails we send you. See our Cookies Policy for more information, including how to control cookies in your own browser.
• We may disclose information about you to our trusted business partners, service providers or any business that supports our products and services such as providers of information technology services and advertising, market research and customer insight agencies.
• From you when you communicate with us including recordings of all incoming and outgoing phone calls with you.
• Any other party in accordance with the law.

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Do I have to provide this information?

We need complete and accurate information about you and anyone else covered by the policy to process your application for insurance, prior approvals, claims and to provide you cover. The consequences of providing incomplete, false or misleading information are set out in your policy document.

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Managing your information: access, correction, preferences and security

You have the right to access and correct information we hold about you and to opt out of marketing communications from us. We work to keep your information secure through our ongoing focus on cyber security along with employee training and awareness.

You can ask to access and correct any personal or health information we hold about you. Please get in touch on 0800 800 181 to make a request. We do our best to ensure the information we hold about you is accurate, complete and up to date. Please help us do this by letting us know as soon as you can of any changes to your circumstances or contact details so we can keep in touch with the information you need to manage and understand your policy. You can update your personal details online in My Southern Cross, or the mobile app.

From time to time, Southern Cross may send you marketing and other information by email or text. If you have provided your email address or mobile phone number we take this as your implied consent for this. You can opt out of receiving these messages or your data being used for third party platform messages by contacting us on 0800 800 181 or by clicking the unsubscribe function included in our electronic marketing communications.

We regularly review, update safeguards and raise awareness about keeping the information we hold secure. We carefully screen other businesses that carry out services on our behalf (eg, mailing houses, research and insight agencies, and information technology providers) to ensure they meet our data protection standards.

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Need more information?

If you have any questions about how we handle your information, or our Member Privacy Statement, please contact us on 0800 800 181. Your information is collected and held by Southern Cross Medical Care Society, Level 1, Te Kupenga, 155 Fanshawe Street, Auckland City 1010.

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Version updated May 2025.