| Title | Health Insurer Aetna Accidentally Exposes Customers' HIV Statuses With Transparent Envelope Windows | |
| Date | Saturday August 26 2017, @11:47AM | |
| Author | Fnord666 | |
| Topic | ||
| from the scarlet-letters dept. | ||
A health insurer has accidentally exposed the HIV status of some customers with letters that can be partially read through a clear piece of plastic:
Health insurance company Aetna "stunned" some of its customers last month when it accidentally made their HIV statuses visible from the outside of envelopes, two legal groups said Thursday. The letters, which contained information about changes in pharmacy benefits and access to HIV medications, were sent to about 12,000 customers across multiple states, Aetna confirmed in a statement.
For some of these customers, a plastic window on the envelope exposed not only the patient's name and address, but also a reference to filling prescriptions for HIV medications. This meant that whoever picked up the mail that day — a family member, a friend, a postal worker — would have been able to see the confidential information, according to the Legal Action Center and the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania. It is not known exactly how many customers were affected.
Attorneys from both legal groups wrote to Aetna on Thursday demanding that the company immediately stop sending customers mail that "illegally discloses that they are taking HIV medication." It also demanded that the insurer take necessary measures to make sure such a breach doesn't happen again.
The legal groups wrote on behalf of Aetna customers in Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia, according to their letter. The attorneys have so far received 23 complaints regarding the misstep, and more continue to come in, CNN reported.
The Legal Action Center and the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania provided this image of a Brooklyn, NY customer's letter, attached to their demand letter (PDF). The text reads: "Dear [REDACTED], The purpose of this letter is to advise you of options [...] Aetna health plan when filing prescriptions for HIV Medic [...] members can use a retail pharmacy or a mail order pharma".
Also at BBC, NPR, and STAT News.
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printed from SoylentNews, Health Insurer Aetna Accidentally Exposes Customers' HIV Statuses With Transparent Envelope Windows on 2024-05-16 16:36:34
