How does the POPI Act affect you as an AMS member?
Your right to protection of personal information
AMS believes that everyone has a right to privacy and our Constitution protects this right. Legislation contained within the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), Act 4 of 2013, now further assists in the protection of this fundamental human right.
AMS is in the process of implementing further safeguards with regards to protecting your personal information.
We also need to maintain documents of all processing operations while meeting the legal requirements of the Promotion of Access to Information Act.
What does this mean for AMS?
On 19 November 2013 the President signed POPIA into law. Only certain sections have commenced and it is expected that the full Act will come into effect on 1 April 2020. Once this date is announced, AMS has one year to comply with all POPIA requirements. We also need to maintain documents of all processing operations while meeting the legal requirements of the Promotion of Access to Information Act.
What constitutes personal information?
Personal information identifies you as a person. This would include information such as your:
- Name, address, email address and phone number
- Identity number
- Race, nationality, ethnicity, origin, colour, religious or political beliefs or associations
- Age, sex, sexual orientation, marital status or family status
- Blood type or any other biometric information
- Medical history and records
How does this affect you?
The POPI Act serves as a watchful protector over public and private organisations to which you have supplied, or may supply, your personal information. It protects your right to privacy under the below eight principles. AMS, like any other organisation, is responsible for the personal information in its possession and needs to comply with conditions for processing information.
1. Processing limitation
We are required to process your personal information in a lawful and transparent manner. This means that processing may not be excessive, requires your consent and needs to be collected directly from you.
2. Clear purpose
Your personal information has to be collected for a specific and defined purpose. We need to inform you of the purpose at the beginning of a business relationship. Also, we must not keep records longer than necessary for achieving the purpose.
3. Further processing limitation
AMS and our Administrator, Discovery Health (Pty) Ltd, may only use your personal information for those purposes that were specified at the time you provided consent to the processing of information. Should we need to use your personal information for any other purpose or disclose it to any other recipients, you need to provide further consent.
4. Information quality
AMS and our Administrator, Discovery Health (Pty) Ltd, have the responsibility to maintain the quality of the personal information that we process.
5. Openness
In order for processing to be fair, you need to be aware of the personal information held about you by us – as well as the source of the information, if it was not collected from you. You need to be made aware of the reason why your information is being collected.
6. Security safeguards
AMS and our Administrator, Discovery Health (Pty) Ltd, must not keep your information longer than necessary and, when it is no longer required, it must be disposed of promptly and professionally. In addition, information security measures must be in place to keep your information safe. We are also required to report any breach of personal information to both the regulator and you.
7. Your participation
You have the right to view your information. If you ask in writing and show proof of your identity, you may have your information corrected or destroyed. In accordance with the POPIA, AMS main members will no longer be able to access information pertaining to their dependants who are over the age of 18, without that dependant’s prior consent.
What does it mean for you as a member?
- We will require separate contact details for all dependants over the age of 18 in order to communicate with them independently. The Scheme is no longer allowed to communicate certain information pertaining to a dependant via the main member.
- With regards to claims, the main member may have access to all the claims on the membership, but only the spouse and/ or dependant can view the details of their own personal claim information.
- In the case of medical savings account balances, only the main member will have access to this information, not the spouse or dependant. The spouse will, however, be able to obtain this balance, should the main member provide permission for him/her to do so.
- With regards to chronic medications, the main member will access only their own chronic-cover information and that of any dependants under 18 years of age who are dependants on the membership.
- Dependants over the age of 18 will have to register separately for their chronic benefits – the main member may not register on their behalf.
- The main member is entitled to know which other dependants on the membership have chronic cover, but they will not have access to the actual chronic-cover information of those dependants.
- All dependants are only allowed to access their own chronic cover information.
In addition to this:
- If you allow a third party to engage with AMS on your behalf, we need you to authorise us to do so, by completing the ‘Permission to make certain information available to a third party’ form.
- All correspondence pertaining to your adult dependant’s/ dependants’ own authorisations (hospital, chronic medication) will be sent to your adult dependant/s.