Aetna agreed to pay $17 million to settle a class action lawsuit involving a privacy breach of thousands of its customers with HIV.
In July 2017, Aetna improperly disclosed the Protected Health Information and Confidential HIV-related information of approximately 12,000 customers. The insurance company required its customers to receive their HIV medications through mail. It did not allow them to personally pick-up their medications at the pharmacy.
Aetna provided their contact information to a third party mailing vendor, which sent instructions about how customers taking HIV medications could fill prescriptions. The third party mailing vendor mailed the instructions using an envelope with a large transparent address window. Because of that, the insurance company and its third party mailing vendor inappropriately revealed customers’ HIV status.
HIV is associated with a negative stigma
Andrew Beckett, an Aetna customer from Pennsylvania, is among those impacted by the HIV privacy breach. He is the lead plaintiff in the class action lawsuit against the insurance company.
