Aetna accidentally exposed customer HIV statuses in clear envelope windows
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Re: Aetna accidentally exposed customer HIV statuses in clear envelope windows
#2Oh neat, I just signed up for Aetna (first time working in America since ACA).
Is this normal for them? Am I an idiot?
Re: Aetna accidentally exposed customer HIV statuses in clear envelope windows
#3Reading further in, it was a screw-up on the paper envelope that had too big of a window and referred to HIV treatment connected to the person's name. This is really bad, but it was 12k localized instances of crummy physical mailing.
Its pretty bad, but it's not like this was "300k people leaked by hackers for ransom".
Re: Aetna accidentally exposed customer HIV statuses in clear envelope windows
#4Oh neat, I just signed up for Aetna (first time working in America since ACA). Is this normal for them? Am I an idiot?
I have them through work, they're pretty shitty, for example, I currently have to either turn of uBlock (not an option) or open dev tools to unhide a div in order to log in. Why there is anything on health insurance website that communicates with a third-party server baffles me. That said, I don't think there are any good options in the US. They all have weird quirks like this, they all require a fight to get the payouts you're entitled to and they'll fudge the numbers so you end up paying way more than you expect. Welcome to America.
Edit: I do have APL gap insurance too. I have nothing but praise for them, easy to work with, paid quickly (checks usually made out to me directly because most places here don't deal with APL), and covered most of my out-of-pocket cost with Aetna which I maxed out last year.
Re: Aetna accidentally exposed customer HIV statuses in clear envelope windows
#5Reading further in, it was a screw-up on the paper envelope that had too big of a window and referred to HIV treatment connected to the person's name. This is really bad, but it was 12k localized instances of crummy physical mailing. Its pretty bad, but it's not like this was "300k people leaked by hackers for ransom".
It's pretty bad.
HIV clinics have "no-contact" lists and if you hypothetically worked for a survey company that made a phone call to one of those numbers, and said you were calling from "XYZ clinic for PQR person who isn't here right now", and the person who takes your call connects the dots, and realizes XYZ clinic is an HIV clinic... you could make two people very upset, and one person homeless.
Hypothetically speaking... it could be real bad news.
Let's just say after that, we asked every medical office we ever worked with from then on, if they had any "no-contact" lists to please ensure they remove those people from the contact list before we started making calls.
We had a mail/phone operation and I'm just imagining our production manager not looking closely enough at even one of 12,000 pieces of mail in windowed envelopes that says "HIV medication" in plain view, before loading them into his car and mailing them at the post office.
He'd be canned instantly. Someone definitely got fired over this.
Re: Aetna accidentally exposed customer HIV statuses in clear envelope windows
#6Oh neat, I just signed up for Aetna (first time working in America since ACA). Is this normal for them? Am I an idiot?
You shouldn't be downvoted for normal and reasonable questions, or even for self doubt.
Aetna is terrible. The lobby against healthcare reform at every turn. They didn't want obamacare/ACA they didn't want to compete accross state lines, they want to be able to exempt people from pre-existing conditions, they want to give people the run-around.
They are not trustworthy and they are run by bad people. (don't beat up on their phone agents though, they are just trying to make ends meets).
Re: Aetna accidentally exposed customer HIV statuses in clear envelope windows
#7Oh neat, I just signed up for Aetna (first time working in America since ACA). Is this normal for them? Am I an idiot?
You shouldn't be downvoted for normal and reasonable questions, or even for self doubt. Aetna is terrible. The lobby against healthcare reform at every turn. They didn't want obamacare/ACA they didn't want to compete accross state lines, they want to be able to exempt people from pre-existing conditions, they want to give people the run-around. They are not trustworthy and they are run by bad people. (don't beat up o…
Are there any other insurers that don't do/want many of these same things?
Re: Aetna accidentally exposed customer HIV statuses in clear envelope windows
#8Oh neat, I just signed up for Aetna (first time working in America since ACA). Is this normal for them? Am I an idiot?
You shouldn't be downvoted for normal and reasonable questions, or even for self doubt. Aetna is terrible. The lobby against healthcare reform at every turn. They didn't want obamacare/ACA they didn't want to compete accross state lines, they want to be able to exempt people from pre-existing conditions, they want to give people the run-around. They are not trustworthy and they are run by bad people. (don't beat up o…
Don't forget about pulling out of the ACA in some states to try to make it look like the merger they wanted to do wouldn't harm competition and then lying about it.
Re: Aetna accidentally exposed customer HIV statuses in clear envelope windows
#9[deleted]
Re: Aetna accidentally exposed customer HIV statuses in clear envelope windows
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
You shouldn't be downvoted for normal and reasonable questions, or even for self doubt. Aetna is terrible. The lobby against healthcare reform at every turn. They didn't want obamacare/ACA they didn't want to compete accross state lines, they want to be able to exempt people from pre-existing conditions, they want to give people the run-around. They are not trustworthy and they are run by bad people. (don't beat up o…
Don't forget about pulling out of the ACA in some states to try to make it look like the merger they wanted to do wouldn't harm competition and then lying about it.
Aetna is one of those companies that has no limits to the evil it will do.