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This privacy policy applies to personal information collected in Australia.

‘We’, ‘Us’, ‘Our’ ‘Bupa Dental’, refers to Dental Corporation Pty Ltd (trading as Bupa Dental) and their related entities and bodies corporate. We are part of the Bupa Australia Group of companies. ‘You’, ‘Your’ refers to individual patients or customers.

1. Introduction

Your privacy and maintaining the confidentiality of your personal information is important to us.

This policy explains what information we collect, how information is collected, used and handled, when information may be disclosed to third parties with your consent, your rights for requesting access to or amending your personal information, as well as how you can provide us with feedback or make a complaint.

When you receive services from Bupa Dental, we will handle your personal information as outlined in this policy. This document may be amended by us from time to time. You can always find the most up-to-date version on our website.

2. Definitions

Consent means your permission. Your consent can be express or implied. Express consent can be written (e.g. when you sign a form or send us correspondence) or verbal (e.g. when you give us your permission over the phone or in face-to-face conversations). Your consent will be implied when we can reasonably form a conclusion from our pre established relationship with you that you have given consent by either taking action or deciding not to take action.

Personal information has the same meaning that it has under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), namely information or an opinion, whether true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion.

3. Information We Collect

We will only collect information that is necessary for providing our services to you. The amount and type of personal information we collect from you and hold about you will vary depending on whether you are an existing patient or customer of a Bupa Dental practice, have made enquiries about our products and services, used our website and also the extent to which you have used our products and services.

If you are currently or have in the past been a patient or customer of a Bupa Dental practice, the personal information that we hold about you may include:

  • name, address, telephone and email contact details;
  • personal details such as age and gender;
  • details of previous dentists you’ve been a patient of;
  • your Medicare number;
  • records of service contacts such as system notes and voice recordings of telephone conversation you’ve had with our employees;
  • financial information (for example, credit card numbers to assist in the administration of payments for dental services);
  • details of purchases made and professional services used, including the date;
  • and sensitive information including:
    • medical history;
    • family medical history; and
    • current health and dental assessment.

4. How Information May Be Collected

We may collect personal information directly from you in a number of ways, including when you:

  • use the contact forms on our website;
  • provide personal information directly to a Bupa Dental dentist providing dental services to you;
  • subscribe to newsletters or other direct marketing materials; or
  • complete forms, send us an email, provide information during a visit to a Bupa Dental practice or by phone;
  • use professional services or purchase goods from us.

We may also collect information from third parties if you have provided them with consent, including:

  • from third parties such as your health insurance provider or Medicare; or
  • dentists, dental specialists or other health practitioners (for example if you were referred to us by another dentist).

If you have provided us with information about another person, then you need to tell that other person that:

  • you have done so,
  • they have a right to access their information and
  • they can refer to this document for information on how we will handle their personal information.

If you do not provide us with your personal information, we may be unable to provide you with the products or services that you are requesting.

5. Use and disclosure of Your Personal Information

We use your personal information primarily to provide, manage and administer our services and products to you and operate an efficient and sustainable business. As part of these processes, we may disclose your personal information on a confidential basis to our related entities within the Bupa Australia Group of companies and Dental Corporation businesses. In addition, we may use your personal information for a number of purposes, including:

  • to provide dental and related services to you;
  • to maintain and administer Your patient file(s) at a Bupa Dental practice;
  • to contact you in relation to any matter relating to You or the dental services or products provided to you;
  • to answer your enquiries and deliver customer services to you;
  • to carry out internal functions such as administration, accounting, quality assurance and information technology;
  • to resolve complaints;
  • to monitor price and evaluate products and services;
  • to conduct marketing, customer surveys and other research and statistical analysis;
  • to administer your invoicing for dental services, credit card payments, or to collect unpaid invoices;
  • to process your health insurance claims;
  • to follow you up regarding further dental examinations or treatments required;
  • to send information to you about us;
  • to comply with any laws or regulations.

If you submit online forms or send emails to us containing personal information, we will use that information to respond to your message or to contact you. The main purpose of collecting and using personal information submitted through our website is to respond to Bupa Dental patient and customer enquiries or feedback from this site.

Your personal information may be handled by our employees. Information may be used by staff at a Bupa Dental practice for the administration or use of the practice and in the provision of services to you.

5.1 Disclosure to Third Parties

In order to allow us to provide manage and administer our products and services to you and to operate an efficient and sustainable business, we may be required to disclose your information to third parties.

This may include disclosure in the following circumstances:

  • to your nominated relatives in an emergency;
  • to government and regulatory bodies, eg. Medicare
  • to auditors and other service providers we may appoint to ensure the integrity of our operations;
  • to any person or entity acting on our behalf;
  • to dentists, dental specialists and other healthcare professionals, for the purpose of seeking a second opinion or a referral, where you have consented to obtaining the second opinion or the referral;
  • to third party health benefit providers and insurance companies to assist in the processing of a claim for reimbursement or payment of all or part of the cost of dental treatment submitted by you or on your behalf;
  • to carry out a review of the practice for the purposes of improving the quality of care provided;
  • where disclosure is required by law, eg. compulsory notices from courts of law, tribunals or government agencies.

If we send your personal information outside of Australia we will require that the recipient of the information complies with privacy laws and contractual obligations to maintain the security of the data.

5.2 Direct marketing

From time to time, we may contact you to provide you with information about other products and services offered by us, our related entities and our business partners that may be of benefit to you and your family. This includes information about the Bupa Dental practices. When we contact you, it may be via mail, phone, email or SMS.

We may share your personal information on a confidential basis with our related entities, related bodies corporate and third parties engaged by us so that they can offer you products and services and fulfil offers to you. When you become our customer, you consent to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes (as described in this document), unless you have contacted us to withdraw your consent. If you do not wish to receive marketing material from us, you can contact us at any time to let us know. Our contact details are at the end of this policy.

If you request not to receive marketing material, please note that we will still contact you in relation to our on-going relationship with you. For example, we will still send you any bills, statements and notices that are relevant to the products and services you have purchased from us.

6. Accessing, Amending, Updating and Correcting your Information

6.1 Access to personal information

You have the right to access personal information that is held about you. You can ask us for access to the information that we hold about you at any time. Simply contact us (our contact details are listed below) to make your request.

In circumstances where we are unable to give you access to the information you have requested, we will give you written reasons for this decision when we respond to your request.

You may request access to your personal information by contacting us as per the contact details at the end of this document.

6.2 Correcting your personal information

To enable us to provide you with the best possible service, it is important that the information we hold about you is accurate.

Where your details change or if you believe any information we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete or out-of-date, you should contact us to let us know.

6.3 Online data collection and use

When you access any Bupa website, we collect certain anonymous technical information about user activities on the website. This may include information such as the type of browser used to access the website and the pages visited.

This information is used by Bupa to make decisions about maintaining and improving our websites and online services.

6.4. Cookies and analytics

We use cookies and industry standard analytics to collect data to help us determine which pages are most popular, peak usage times and other information that helps us make our websites easier and more efficient for you to use. When you visit our website we may set a cookie on your machine so that when you next visit our websites it links to your personal information that is stored on our system.

A "cookie" is a small text file placed on your computer by a web server when you access a website. Cookies are frequently used on websites. Cookies in themselves do not identify the individual user, just the computer used.

You can choose if and how a cookie will be accepted by configuring your preferences and options in your browser. For example, you can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie or to reject cookies. However, if you decide not to display cookies, then you may not be able to gain access to all the content and facilities of this website.

7. Our Website

Our website contains links to other websites. You should take care in providing personal information to external websites linked to our website. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of other websites or external websites linked to this website.

We collect standard web server/visitor traffic information, commonly referred to as aggregate information, regarding overall website traffic patterns. Normally, web servers collect this type of basic information as part of their web log processes. We only use this information for statistical, reporting and website administration and maintenance purposes. It is not used in a way that individually identifies you, and we do not report on individual users.

8. Our Contact Information and Resolving your Concerns

You can contact us at any time if you have any questions or concerns about this document or about how your personal information has been handled.

You can contact our Privacy Officer by directing your correspondence to:
The Privacy Officer, Bupa Dental Corporation, Level 15, 33 Exhibition Street, Melbourne, VIC, 3000

BD.PracticeStandards@bupa.com.au

Dental Corporation will manage any concerns internally, directly with you.

If, after contacting Us, You still have concerns or don’t understand a decision We’ve made, You can contact Our Corporate Centre on the contact details below:

Dental Care Network
Customer Centre
PO Box 1439
Lane Cove, Australia 1595

If you are not happy with our response, or if you do not feel your complaint has been resolved, you are able to seek advice from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner by calling 1300 363 992 or visit their website at www.oaic.gov.au .