Membership Advantage

What was Membership Advantage?

Membership Advantage was an additional set of benefits (comprised of a funeral allowance and other accident-related benefits). For a number of years it was added to Southern Cross health insurance policies for members of employer work schemes that were linked to Business New Zealand and the Employers and Manufacturers Association.


See the Membership Advantage summary of benefits.

Membership Advantage errors

Following a review, Southern Cross decided to no longer offer Membership Advantage as part of its health insurance offering, and removal from Southern Cross policies took effect as at 30 September 2020.

In effecting the closure of Membership Advantage some errors have been identified. These include premium having been incorrectly charged to members who turned 65 years old and, in some cases, the summary of benefits not being provided to members. We’re now correcting this.

We’re contacting affected members and employer groups, including those who no longer have a policy or a work scheme with us:

  • We’ll provide a copy of the summary of benefits to members who did not receive one. There will also be an opportunity for members who didn’t receive a summary of benefits to contact us if they believe they were entitled to make a claim for one of the Membership Advantage benefits.
  • We will apply a credit or refund as remediation for the errors.
  • The credit or refund will include an allowance for the ‘time value of money’ (based on the time between the error occurring and the credit or refund being made).

What do you need to do?

If either of these errors impact you, you’ll receive an email or letter from us advising whether we need to refund or credit any incorrectly charged premium to you.

Employer groups

  • We will refund an employer group if the organisation paid the Membership Advantage premium.
  • If we’ve contacted you to provide us with your employer work scheme bank details, we’d like you to complete this secure form. You must be authorised to complete the form on behalf of the organisation.
  • Once we’ve processed your completed form, we will refund you within 20 working days.

Members

  • If you’re an existing member, we may apply a premium credit to your policy.
  • For some affected members, due to your payment arrangement, we may need to refund you. Also, if you’re no longer with Southern Cross and you’re entitled to a refund, we’ll be in touch regarding the bank account we have on record and check with you before paying the refund into this account.
  • If we don’t have your bank account details, or you want us to pay the refund in'to a different account, we’ll be asking you to complete this form. Once we’ve processed your completed form, we will refund you within 10 working days.
  • If after checking the Membership Advantage summary of benefits you believe you’re entitled to claim under any of the Membership Advantage benefits, you’ll need to contact us on 0800 800 181 within 28 days of the date of the communication and we’ll advise next steps.

Provide your bank details Verify your date of birth

If you have any questions relating to this, please contact us.

Withdrawal of Membership Advantage – updated in response to COVID-19

We stopped collecting premium for Membership Advantage from 30 June 2020 after earlier advising members that it was no longer being offered.

In recognising the challenges caused by COVID-19, we extended the time the Membership Advantage benefits were available to qualifying and existing members until 30 September 2020. We did not charge a premium for these benefits during this period.

 

FAQs

  • What were the errors identified in the review process?

    We have identified two situations where:

    • premium was paid for members beyond the age of 64 years old. Eligibility for Membership Advantage benefits is between 21 years and 64 years inclusive. If a premium was charged for a current or former member for Membership Advantage beyond age 64, we are reimbursing the party who paid the premium (through credit or refund) that portion that extends beyond the date they were eligible;
    • members who acquired Membership Advantage with their health insurance through their work scheme from November 2016 were not sent a Membership Advantage summary of benefits with their welcome pack. As premium was charged for benefits that a member may not have been aware of, we are reimbursing the whole premium for Membership Advantage for the relevant time to the party who paid the premium.

  • I’m an existing member and due to receive a credit, how will this be applied?

    Depending on how much you are due and how you pay your premium, the credit will be applied to your first available premium payment. If the credit is larger than your first premium instalment, the balance will be applied to subsequent payments.

  • Who receives the refund / credit?

    The refund (or credit) is made to the party who paid Southern Cross for Membership Advantage. If that was your employer then in most cases the refund will be paid to them.


    For members who paid the Membership Advantage premium directly, the refund or credit will be to the policyholder. For members who have left Southern Cross, we will pay the refund to their nominated bank account.

  • What does “time value of money” mean?

    We recognise that these errors may mean the incorrect premium has been paid for quite a long period of time. Because of this, your credit or refund includes an allowance for the period between the error beginning and the refund or credit being made.

  • Who can complete the employer work scheme bank account form?

    Only the authorised contact that we have on record can complete this form on behalf of an organisation.

  • How will I know if I’m due a credit or refund?

    We’ll contact you if you are affected by either of these errors. We may contact you by email or post depending on the contact details we hold for you.

  • What if I had Membership Advantage and have made a claim under it already?

    In that case we will not send out a summary of benefits as you were already aware of what you were entitled to claim (as you have done so). We’ll also not refund the premium for the time you held Membership Advantage.

    We’ve also already been in contact with some families who were eligible to claim for the funeral benefit allowance for a member, and paid eligible claims.


    If, once you receive the summary of benefits, you believe you’re entitled to claim for one of the Membership Advantage benefits please contact us on 0800 800 181 as soon as possible, within 28 days of the date of the communication.

  • Why have you reimbursed me for a very small credit or refund amount?

    Your credit or refund directly relates to the amount that you are owed. We’ve reimbursed you even when it’s a small amount of money because we wanted to correct the error made fully and properly.

  • Is there an option to continue the Membership Advantage cover?

    As we are no longer offering or supporting Membership Advantage (or collecting the premium for it) if you wish to retain it you will have to discuss this directly with the insurer/underwriter DPL Insurance. You can reach their business arm Greenwich Life at [email protected] or call 0800 666 004. Before you do so, we would urge you to carefully compare the benefits offered with other trauma products available.

  • Why are you no longer offering Membership Advantage?

    When we look at what benefits to change, reduce or remove, we consider the number and dollar value of claims made in previous years, the member impact and the alignment with our goal of making health insurance affordable for as many Kiwis and Kiwi businesses as possible. We’ve reviewed our products to ensure they remain suitable and relevant to our members going forward and we don’t believe that Membership Advantage is either of those things. We want to remain focused on providing sustainable and competitive health insurance and wellbeing products.

  • How much was the Membership Advantage premium?

    The premium was a flat fee of $39 per year for every person on the policy aged 21-64.

  • Who was eligible for Membership Advantage?

    It was available for staff of employers who were members of Business New Zealand or the Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA), who purchased Southern Cross health insurance through their employer work scheme and who were aged between 21 and 64 years old.

  • I don’t recall seeing anything about Membership Advantage

    If you acquired Membership Advantage before November 2016 a summary of benefits was included in the welcome pack we sent out when you first joined the work scheme, so you were made aware of the benefits available.


    If you acquired Membership Advantage (or joined your work scheme) after November 2016 you probably did not receive the Membership Advantage summary of benefits as this was not included in the welcome pack, as it should have been. In this case our communication to you will advise you of this, and include a copy of the summary of benefits and advise the remediation steps we are making.

  • We may have been able to claim against these benefits. What should we do?

    Please review the summary of benefits and then contact us as soon as possible, within 28 days of the date of the communication, and we’ll advise the next steps for submitting a claim.


    We will be contacting members who joined after November 2016 and providing a copy of the summary of benefits. These members will need to contact us on 0800 800 181, within 28 days of the date of the communication, to discuss their claim.