Pacific Blue Cross and BC Life are committed to protecting the privacy of our members and their dependents. For over 60 years we have diligently protected our members' information.

On January 1, 2004, the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) came into effect in British Columbia. This is in addition to the current federal privacy legislation (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act). The purpose of PIPA is to balance the right of individuals and to protect their personal information with the need of organizations to collect, use, disclose, and retain personal information for purposes that a reasonable person would consider appropriate in the circumstances. Our privacy protection practices are compliant with both the provincial and federal privacy laws.

The purpose of this document is to keep you informed about our privacy protection practices, our reasons for collecting your information and how we meet the requirements of the legislation.

1. Why do we collect your information?
2. When do we disclose information?
3. How do we protect your information?
4. Information accuracy
5. Online Privacy Policy
6. Providing the Best Service
7. Your choices
8. Privacy related inquiries

The privacy information found here is also available for you to download
in Adobe PDF format.

Why do we collect your information?
When you first join us as a member or dependent under a group or individual plan we ask you for some information. We use this information to:

• establish your identification
• verify your eligibility for benefits and services
• process and pay your claims
• protect both you, and us, from error and fraud
• assist us in complying with legal requirements
• understand your needs and preferences

We may also collect your information for these same purposes from other organizations that you are covered with such as your provincial medical plan or another benefit carrier.

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When do we disclose information?
We may disclose a member or dependent's information to another Blue Cross organization if they provide services on our behalf for individuals who reside outside British Columbia. Any such disclosure is made confidentially and the information is used by the Blue Cross organization to determine eligibility for coverage and to pay claims.

We may disclose a member or dependent's information to a health care professional when necessary to assess benefit or product eligibility.

We may disclose a member or dependent's information to an auditor sent by the member's employer to review that our procedures and claims processing is in accordance with our contractual obligation. The auditor will see only the information on members and dependents under that employer's plan(s), and not information on any other employer's members. In such situations we require the auditor to sign a confidentiality agreement to protect the privacy of this information.

In the event one of our members, or their dependents, is covered by a second benefit plan with another benefit carrier, we may disclose his/her relevant information to the benefit carrier when we are coordinating benefit payments between our organizations. This is in accordance with our contractual obligation.

We may share a member or dependent's information between Pacific Blue Cross and BC Life if the person has benefits with both organizations.

We may disclose a member or dependent's information to a person who seeks the information as an authorized representative (e.g. lawyer) of the member or dependent.

We may disclose a member or dependent's information when required or permitted by law. We limit the information that we release to only what is allowed or required by the relevant legislation.

We do not sell personal information or customer lists to other companies.

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How do we protect your information?
We will not collect, use your information for any purposes other than what we've listed here. We will not disclose this information without your consent.

We will take all reasonable safeguards that are necessary to protect your information.

We limit access to your information to only selected employees in our organizations who require access to the information in performance of their job function. All information is kept confidential and each employee must sign a confidentiality agreement as a condition of employment.

Our computer systems are designed to prevent unauthorized access.

We will dispose of your information in an appropriate and secure manner when it is no longer required.

We will protect the confidentiality of your information when dealing with other people and organizations.

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Information accuracy

We will do our best to ensure that your information is accurate and current. It is important that you, or your benefit administrator, contact us with any changes to your information such as change of address or marital status.

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Online Privacy Policy
This policy outlines what you can expect from Pacific Blue Cross and BC Life when you visit our website.

We will not sell, rent or share any personally-identifiable information you provide to us during your visit to this website without your consent.

No personally-identifiable information collected during your visit to this website will ever be used to affect your existing health benefit or insurance coverage or contributions or premiums paid to either Pacific Blue Cross or BC Life.

Our Web servers automatically capture your IP address, domain name, the referring Web page from which you enter our site, the pages you visit on our site and the amount of time you spend here. All websites are capable of capturing this information and most do. We do not collect any information that can reveal your personal identity unless you voluntarily provide it when you register to use interactive features of the site or receive information from us.

Any personally-identifiable information you give us will be used only to provide the product, service or information you have requested or for which you registered. Your personally-identifiable information, including your e-mail address, will not be sold, rented, licensed, or otherwise shared with third parties, including other member companies of the Canadian Association of Blue Cross Plans, unless you specifically consent to let us do so. The non-personally-identifiable information we gather (e.g. browser statistics, etc.) may be used to improve our site, and we may share that information with our member companies.

When you visit our site, we may place a cookie on your computer that will allow us to customize and enhance your experience and improve the services we offer at our website, or to report site activity. Our cookies will never be used to track your activity on any third party websites or to send spam (e.g. unsolicited) e-mail to you.

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Providing the Best Service
We are committed to providing the very best customer service to our members. To ensure we continually meet and exceed your expectations we may send you a customer survey. Your feedback will help us better understand and meet your needs. We may share your comments with our members and third parties, or use them for marketing purposes. To protect your privacy, you will be identified only by first name and city of residence.

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Your choices
We will continue to collect information for the purposes described in this document. You do, however, have the choice not to provide us with your information. You may withdraw your consent at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice. Be aware that in doing so, you may limit our ability to pay your claims.

Privacy related inquiries
We will respect your request for access to your information. Send all requests or questions about our privacy practices to us in writing or by e-mail. In your correspondence please describe your questions in as much detail as possible. We will investigate your concerns promptly and will respond to you within 30 days.