Provided your family member is a Southern Cross member on an appropriate plan with surgical cover (RegularCare, KiwiCare, Wellbeing One, Wellbeing Two or UltraCare) and they meet all the other eligibility criteria listed above they can join. 

Please provide your family member with a copy of the invite email you received or contact your employer for a copy.  

Family members must register themselves using the link provided and must request the FIT kit to be posted to their chosen address. Employees cannot register family members onto the pilot and employees cannot collect a FIT kit on behalf of a family member.

The public national bowel screening programme is for those aged between 60 – 74. Our pilot is specifically targeting a younger cohort that are not eligible for the national programme. The pilot will evaluate whether offering screening to members in the younger 45-59 age group is a value add for our members.

The FIT kit used in this pilot is also different to the national public programme. The FIT provides an instant result that does not need to be analysed by a lab, whereas in the national programme participants need to wait a few weeks for a result.

The registration period for each of the four corporate groups will be open for 2-3 weeks, starting from the date the invitation email is sent, but we may extend this period depending on registration uptake.

We may also close registrations for the pilot early if we reach the required number of participants, and/or if we reach the allocated funding cap in relation to FIT kits and healthcare navigator costs.

The FIT kit and any nurse support is provided at no extra cost to you and won’t be registered as a claim against your policy. Any other services and/or treatments - such as a colonoscopy - will be claimed against your Southern Cross policy in the normal way. Depending on your chosen policy, this means excesses, co-payments, benefit limits, and/or low claim discount adjustments may apply.

Your identifiable health information relevant to the pilot will be shared to Southern Cross Health Insurance, by the health navigator, colonoscopy clinics and other providers who are involved in your care such as imaging clinics and specialists. 

The information will only be used for the purposes of administering, reporting, and evaluating the pilot . This is necessary for us to determine whether earlier bowel screening should be offered to all eligible members. Before you sign up to the pilot a full privacy statement will be made available to you.

You can always apply to join us. Just get in touch with your Southern Cross field sales representative or call 0800 438 268. They can discuss the application process that will apply depending on how long you've been working with your employer. Once your application is accepted, we can advise you whether you're eligible to join the pilot.

We may not have your most up to date email address in our system. Please contact your employer and ask for a copy of the email invitation that can be used to sign up.

As above, if the family member is on an appropriate plan and meets the criteria (please see above What is the criteria to take part?) they can join the pilot. The employee does not have to be eligible for the family member to also join.

Please contact your employer for a copy of the invite email that your family member can use to sign up.

Your family members can always apply to join Southern Cross! Your spouse/partner or dependents aged under 21 can apply to join on your policy. Other family members can apply for their own policy. 

Once your family is covered by a Southern Cross policy with surgical cover, we can advise them whether they are eligible to take part in the pilot. Please note the pilot is only available to individuals aged 45-59 at time of registration.

The FIT kit used in the pilot checks for blood in your stool, which may not be visible. It is a simple test that can be done at home which will produce one line for a negative result, and two for a positive result. There is no need to send samples to a lab with the associated long waits. Called a faecal immunochemical test (FIT), the test is very similar to a Covid-19 RAT test, and easy to do in the comfort of your own home. There’s no special diet or prep to do before the test and no long wait to get your results. Within minutes you will see either one red line (negative), or two red lines (positive) on the test cassette.

If your test is negative, this means you don’t need any further investigation at this time. But even after a negative test, if you develop symptoms or concerns, it is important to see your GP so that nothing important is missed.

A positive result does not necessarily mean you have bowel cancer. The FIT kit can detect tiny traces of blood present in your bowel motion. There can be other reasons you have blood in your bowel like polyps or haemorrhoids (piles). The follow up with a colonoscopy is critical to look for pre-cancerous polyps or early bowel cancer. Picking it up early increases the chances it can be successfully treated. If the specialist finds a cancer you will be referred for treatment.

Although under 45 years old bowel cancer is less common, it is increasing in incidence.

Therefore, at any age, if you have new gut symptoms:

• Abdominal pain or cramping
• Bleeding from the bottom or visible blood mixed into the stool
• A sustained change in your usual bowel habit (i.e., new constipation or diarrhoea)
• Unexplained weight loss, or
• Iron deficiency anaemia on a blood test from your GP (i.e. low blood count and iron level)

You should discuss this with your usual family doctor who may refer you on for further targeted testing, rather than a screening test like the FIT kit, which is designed for people without symptoms.

If you have no symptoms, but have a significant family history of colon cancer, particularly in a first degree relative (i.e., Mum, Dad, sibling) you may need:

• surveillance colonoscopies (e.g. 10 years before the age at which they were diagnosed, for example if your relative was diagnosed age 50, surveillance colonoscopy for you might start at 40 
• or referral to the New Zealand Familial GI Cancer Service

This will depend on your individual level of risk, and this should be discussed with your GP.

The criteria to take part is the following:

• Must be a Southern Cross member
• Must be between ages of 45-59
• Must have a plan with surgical cover*
• Must not have had a colonoscopy in the past 5 years.
• Must not have any pre-existing conditions relating to bowel health / gastrointestinal problems. .

*Please note, if you joined your group insurance scheme within the last six months and were required to complete a full medical disclosure, this may impact your ability to claim for treatment after the FIT kit results, as we will be required to investigate your medical history with your GP.  If you have not yet joined the group scheme and are required to complete a full medical disclosure, the above also applies.

The risk of bowel cancer increases with age. Bowel cancer screening (such as a FIT test which detects microscopic blood in stools) is undertaken in many other countries (including Australia) from the age of 45. In New Zealand, the national bowel screening program starts at age 60. 

The Southern Cross bowel health pilot makes bowel cancer screening available to our members at an earlier age with the aim of reducing the impact of bowel cancer. Remember, New Zealand has one of the highest rates of bowel cancer in the world. 

Under 45 years old, bowel cancer is less common. The FIT test is more likely to be a false positive (i.e., the test is positive, but there is no bowel cancer or advanced polyps).

Anyone aged 60 and older is eligible for the national public screening programme and should either have received a test in the post or contact their GP to get involved if they wish to get involved.

Usually, patients requiring a colonoscopy need a referral from a GP to an endoscopy clinic. We’re piloting a fast-track bowel health service which provides access with a positive screening test and have partnered with specific clinics to provide this service. We are working with some affiliated provider clinics along with colorectal surgeons and oncologists in the relevant regions to deliver this pilot.

If you have a positive result on your FIT and wish to see a different endoscopist you may do so and claim under your policy. Our healthcare navigator can help with referring you to an endoscopist of your choice (within our AP network), but this will be outside of the pilot, and we won’t be able to evaluate the experience and quality of the journey. 

New Zealand has one of the highest rates of bowel cancer in the world. More than 3,000 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer each year and over 1,200 will die from the disease. 

Early detection and treatment offers the best chance of cure. Ninety percent of bowel cancers are curable if caught early. 

Unfortunately, often bowel cancer develops without any symptoms, especially in the early stages. Screening can help detect cancer and pre-cancerous growths or polyps when you don't have any signs or symptoms.

If you’re aged 45-59, with no symptoms, international studies suggest that one way  to keep a check on your bowel health is to do a screening test (called a FIT kit). If the test is positive a colonoscopy is the next step