11 July 2025
Bruce Van Essen
[FYI request #31401 email]
Kia ora
Your Official Information Act request, reference: GOV-041032
Thank you for your email of 26 June 2025, asking for the following information under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act):
On 20 May 2024 ACC responded to a request for funding of CBD products. The questions that
were asked in this request was
"I understand from GOV-029326 that “28 claims have received payment for cannabis related
products in 2023.”
Obviously without revealing patient identities, can you advise what products were approved and
for what medical conditions?"
Data for this request was run by ACC on the 2 May 2024 and it was stated that if rerun again that
it may differ.
My request is that ACC rerun a data extraction for the above questions with updated data to be
provided from the original request date in 2024 to the current date.
Information about claims receiving funding for cannabis products is attached in the appendix.
Please refer to the Notes and Caveats section when interpreting the data.
Claim counts fewer than four
Some values in the tables indicate that the claim count is fewer than four (denoted as <4) to protect our
clients’ privacy. This decision is made under section 9(2)(a) of the Act. In doing so, we have considered
the public interest in making the information available and have determined that it does not outweigh
the need to protect our clients’ privacy.
Context about funding pathways for medicinal cannabis treatment
If an individual has a covered ACC claim, their treatment provider can request funding for cannabis
products by submitting a pharmaceutical funding form and providing supporting documentation.
As medicinal cannabis is a non-subsidised and a non-regulated pharmaceutical, all requests for
cannabis products are then considered by an ACC clinical advisor with a relevant pharmaceutical or
medical background. ACC considers each request on a case-by-case basis.
Decisions are made about funding cannabis-based products by considering the information provided
by the prescribing specialist along with the client’s relevant clinical records and relevant medical
research.
GOV-041032 Page 1 of 2
As this information may be of interest to other members of the public
ACC may publish a copy of this response on ACC’s website. All requester data, including your name
and contact details, will be removed prior to release. The released response will be made available
www.acc.co.nz/resources/#/category/12. Please also view this page about making requests and our
published response
s https://www.acc.co.nz/contact/official-information-act-requests. If you have any questions about this response, please get in touch
You can email me a
t [email address].
If you are not happy with this response, you can also contact the Ombudsman via
[email address] or by phoning 0800 802 602. Information about how to make a
complaint is available a
t www.ombudsman.parliament.nz. Ngā mihi
Christopher Johnston
Manager Official Information Act Services Government Engagement
GOV-041032 Page 2 of 2
