Privacy Protection Practices

Personal health plans are offered by Ontario Blue Cross and underwritten by the Canassurance Insurance Company¹ and Blue Cross Life Insurance Company of Canada ("Blue Cross Life") with administrative functions provided by Medavie Blue Cross. Blue Cross Life Insurance Company of Canada is the underwriter of the Critical Illness and AD&D benefits.

In the course of providing customers with quality health, life and travel coverage, Blue Cross acquires and stores certain personal information about its clients and their dependents. The purpose of this document is to keep you informed about privacy protection practices at Blue Cross.

Protecting personal information is not new to us. Ensuring the confidentiality of client information has always been fundamental to the way we do business, and our staff takes the privacy policies and procedures we have in place to ensure that confidentiality very seriously.

What is personal information?

Personal information includes details about an identifiable individual and may include name, age, identification numbers, income, employment data, marital and dependent status, medical records, and financial information.

How is your personal information used?

Your personal information is necessary to allow Blue Cross to process your application for coverage under its health, life and travel plans. Your personal information is used:

• to provide the services outlined in your contract or the group contract of which you are an eligible member
• to understand your needs so that we can recommend suitable products and services, and
• to manage our business

To whom could this personal information be disclosed?

Depending on the type of coverage you carry with us, release of selected personal information to the following may be necessary in order to provide the services outlined in your contract or the group contract of which you are an eligible member:

• other Canadian Blue Cross organizations in order to administer your benefit plan if you reside outside the Atlantic Provinces, Quebec or Ontario
• specialized health care professionals when necessary to assess benefit or product eligibility
• government and regulatory authorities in an emergency situation or where required by law
• Blue Cross Life and other third parties, on a confidential basis, when required to administer the benefits outlined in your contract or the group policy of which you are an eligible member or
• the cardholder of any contract under which you are a participant

We do not provide or sell personal information about you to any outside company for use in marketing and solicitation. Personal information about you or your dependents is not released to a third party without permission unless necessary to fulfil the services Blue Cross is contracted to provide to you.

To ensure Blue Cross is able to provide you with the best possible service, it is important that the personal information we use is accurate and up to date. You can help by keeping us informed of changes of address, marital status and the addition or deletion of dependents. Should you become aware of errors in our information about you, please contact our customer service personnel and we will ensure the data is corrected.

By becoming a Blue Cross customer or filing a claim for benefits, you are agreeing to allow your personal information to be used and disclosed in the manner outlined above. If you prefer that we not use or disclose your personal information in those situations where it is not necessary to administer your benefit plan, please visit our website or write to us at the address provided.

Please note that not allowing Blue Cross to use information about you may mean we may not be able to provide you with certain products or services that may be of use to you.

For more information

If you require further information on our privacy policy, please address your questions, concerns or complaints in writing to:

Chief Privacy Officer
Canassurance Hospital Service Association and its subsidiaries1
185 The West Mall
Suite 610
Etobicoke, ON
M9C 5P1

or email to:

[email protected]

¹Ontario Blue Cross, Canassurance Insurance Company Inc. and CanAssistance Inc.

If the issue is not resolved to your satisfaction, you may file a complaint in writing to:

Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
30 Victoria Street
1st Floor
Gatineau, QC
K1A 1H3