Southern Cross says it told advisers, policyholders of withdrawn benefit

“The non-surgical hospitalisation benefit was removed as part of [the] society's benefit review in 2020,” says the head of customer strategy and experience, Nic Johnson, in a statement.

“Members were communicated with at the time of the benefit change,” Johnson says.

As GoodReturns has reported, the notification sent to policyholders in November 2020 referred only to additional coverage and did not say that the non-surgical hospitalisation cover was being removed.

Johnson says Southern Cross advisers were also told about the changes at the time via a virtual meeting and that advisers also have access to the company's adviser gateway portal to manager their customers' policies.