Payers

Aetna hit with class-action lawsuit for revealing customers’ HIV statuses

After disclosing the HIV statuses of up to 12,000 customers via a mailing, Aetna has been hit with a class-action lawsuit.

By Erin Dietsche on August 28, 2017

Last week, Aetna made headlines for accidentally disclosing the HIV statuses of up to 12,000 members.

Now a Pennsylvania man has filed a lawsuit against the health insurer.

The situation began in late July, when the Hartford, Connecticut-based company sent out letters to customers about ordering prescription HIV drugs. The information about HIV medications was visible through the transparent window of each envelope.

Strangely, the mailing was supposed to address patient privacy concerns that arose after two lawsuits filed against the insurer in 2014 and 2015. Although Aetna proposed customers receive HIV medications from mail-order pharmacies, many objected, citing potential privacy problems.

Aetna stressed that it isn’t positive how many customers were impacted by the mailing, since it depends on how the letter was placed inside the envelope, according to NPR.

The company released the following statement in response to the disclosure issue:

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We sincerely apologize to those affected by a mailing issue that inadvertently exposed the personal health information of some Aetna members.  This type of mistake is unacceptable, and we are undertaking a full review of our processes to ensure something like this never happens again.

But that statement alone wasn’t enough.

Today, Philadelphia-based AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, New York City-based Legal Action Center and Philadelphia-based Berger & Montague filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

The complaint states that Aetna “carelessly, recklessly, negligently, and impermissibly revealed HIV-related information of their current and former insureds to their family, friends, roommates, landlords, neighbors, mail carriers and complete strangers.”

The lead plaintiff in the case is a 52-year-old Pennsylvania man whose sister learned from the unopened letter that he was taking HIV medications. He doesn’t have HIV, but takes prescriptions as part of a pre-exposure prophylaxis regimen to decrease his chances of acquiring it.

He is using the pseudonym Andrew Beckett, a reference to a character of the same name from the 1993 film Philadelphia. In the movie, Beckett is a law firm associate who keeps his homosexuality and status as an AIDS patient under wraps. The story is based on true events surrounding wrongful dismissal in one of the first AIDS discrimination cases.

In a statement, AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania executive director Ronda Goldfein commented on the suit:

For 40 years, HIV-related public health messages have been geared toward assuring people that it’s safe to come forward to get confidential HIV treatment, and now our clients come forward for HIV-related healthcare and Aetna fails to provide confidentiality.

Aetna said it does not have any comment on the lawsuit.

Photo: Hailshadow, Getty Images