Aetna Faces Lawsuit For Outing HIV-Positive Patients In Mailers

Health insurance company Aetna is facing a class-action lawsuit after the American insurance firm mistakenly revealed the status of thousands of HIV-positive patients in letters sent through the mail.

The lawsuit, filed by the Legal Action Center, took issue with the fact mailers sent by Aetna included the words “filling prescriptions for HIV,” which were visible through the transparent window on the envelopes of the letter—effectively revealing the HIV status of its customers to anyone who saw the envelope.

Aetna sent the letters with the message about the customer’s HIV status to more than 12,000 customers in 23 states. The snail mail mistake is being viewed as a privacy breach by the Legal Action Center, and it is seeking damages for those affected by the mailers.

“Widespread stigma still exists about HIV and AIDS, leading to discrimination in employment, housing, education and health care, and to violence,” the lawsuit said.

It theorized that by including the line of visible line of text in the mailer, the HIV status of a person could have been revealed to family members, roommates, friends, neighbors, landlords, mail carriers or complete strangers.

The suit brought by the Legal Action Center seeks to recover unspecified damages for the plaintiffs, change Aetna's mailing practices to protect customer privacy, and cover any legal fees and costs associated with the case.

Many privacy suits are brought by anonymous plaintiffs so as to protect their identity from any further compromise. In the case of the suit brought against Aetna, the plaintiff used the pseudonym Andrew Beckett.

Beckett is the protagonist portrayed by Tom Hanks in the 1993 film “Philadelphia.” As the film highlights, Beckett was fired from his job at a law firm after it is revealed to his employer that he had contracted AIDS. After being dismissed from his position, Beckett filed an unlawful termination lawsuit based in AIDS discrimination.

The Connecticut-based Aetna has apologized for the mistake made in mailing the documents with revealing information clearly visible, and blamed a vendor it works with for the mistake of using a windowed envelope.

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

The mistake made by Aetna was actually the result of two previous privacy lawsuits filed against the insurer. Aetna was, at a time, requiring HIV patients to receive their medications through the mail, a practice the lawsuits against the company sought to end.

Those suits were successful, and Aetna sent mailers out to those patients the change in policy would affect. The mailers informing those customers were the ones with the transparent windows that revealed the HIV status of the recipients.