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Insurer’s mailing to customers made HIV status visible through envelope window
Statnews.com ^ | 08/24/2017 | Erin Mershon

Posted on 08/25/2017 8:21:14 AM PDT by Silentgypsy

Thousands of people with HIV received mailed letters from Aetna last month that may have disclosed their HIV status on the envelope.

The letters, which Aetna said were sent to approximately 12,000 people, were meant to relay a change in pharmacy benefits. Text visible through a small window on the envelopes listed the patients’ names and suggested a change in how they would fill the prescription for their treatment for the virus.

“People have been devastated. We’ve had a number of people tell us they had chosen not to disclose their HIV status to family members — but this is how their family members found out,” said Sally Friedman, legal director at Legal Action Center, which is pushing Aetna to correct the mistake and which highlighted the violation Thursday.

“People with any private health conditions can just imagine, whether you’re being treated for cancer or a behavioral condition, just imagine having that flat out on the front of an envelope for anyone to see. It should be a grave concern to everyone,” she added.

(Excerpt) Read more at statnews.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: aetna; hivstatus; privacy
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To: Mears

HIPPA is a useless bureaucratic mess, costing business billions and increase costs for us all. Good intention. Bad practice.


21 posted on 08/25/2017 9:13:29 AM PDT by sagar
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To: Silentgypsy

lulz


22 posted on 08/25/2017 9:15:18 AM PDT by dennisw (Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it is enemy action.)
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To: Mears

Yeah, no kidding.


23 posted on 08/25/2017 9:40:22 AM PDT by taxcontrol (Stupid should hurt)
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To: sagar
Dan from Shifty Envelope says he can beat the W.B. Mason price by .08/unit. Let's go with him.


24 posted on 08/25/2017 9:44:28 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Silentgypsy

I remembered an earlier post about this, did a title search for HIV, found it, noticed it was from a different source and posted the link. You object to this?


25 posted on 08/25/2017 10:38:52 AM PDT by upchuck (Maybe oxygen is slowly killing you and it just takes 75-100 years to fully work.)
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To: Silentgypsy

Pozzed


26 posted on 08/25/2017 12:26:28 PM PDT by Dr.Deth
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To: 1Old Pro

At least they didn’t show the last four digits of the SSN...(I hope) /s


27 posted on 08/25/2017 2:44:20 PM PDT by Oscar in Batangas (12:01 PM 1/20/2017,,,The end of an error.)
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To: upchuck

Not at all. I searched for the title only. You taught me to do a title and keyword search before posting and I appreciate it. If I sounded nasty, it was most certainly unintentional.


28 posted on 08/25/2017 11:34:54 PM PDT by Silentgypsy (If the world were flat, cats would have knocked everything off the edge already.)
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To: Silentgypsy

It’s usually best to search on one, possibly two words from the title and choose “order by post time.”

Using this article as an example, I would search on hiv and envelope.

FWIW, I rarely do keyword searches since keywords are done freehand. Too many variables.


29 posted on 08/25/2017 11:44:20 PM PDT by upchuck (I speak my mind because it hurts to keep biting my tongue all the time.)
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To: upchuck

I don’t even recall seeing “order by post time.” Will make it a point to use that method from now on. Thanks!


30 posted on 08/26/2017 7:47:39 AM PDT by Silentgypsy (If the world were flat, cats would have knocked everything off the edge already.)
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To: Silentgypsy

:)


31 posted on 08/26/2017 2:39:35 PM PDT by upchuck (I speak my mind because it hurts to keep biting my tongue all the time.)
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