Aetna Inc. (NYSE:AET), the first major U.S. life and health insurer to announce how it will respond to the Haiti earthquake, today said it will help arrange medical evacuations for employer clients with employees injured by the quake.
Aetna, Hartford, the first large health insurer to announce how it will be responding to the disaster, says it also is opening Aetna behavioral health unit employee assistance program to members of all Aetna benefit plans, regardless of whether the employers have signed up for EAP services.
For families that have to file life insurance claims, Aetna will be extending claim submission deadlines and hopes to expedite the claim payment process, the company says.
Here are some key Aetna emergency telephone numbers:
– Aetna Global Benefits International Service Center and International Employee Assistance Program: (800) 231-7729 or (813) 775-0190 (collect).
- Aetna U.S. Employee Assistance Program: (888) 238-6232 or, for the hearing impaired, (866) 843-6323.
- Aetna U.S. Member Services: (800) 443-238.
- Aetna Group Life: (800) 523-5065.
"We are greatly saddened by this tragedy, and we extend our thoughts and deepest sympathies to the families and loved ones of those affected," Aetna Chairman Ronald Williams says in a statement. "Our members and employees with family members in Haiti are of the utmost concern to us, and we are committed to supporting them through this difficult time."
The Haitian Red Cross is estimating that more than 45,000 of Haiti's 8.5 million residents may have died in the earthquake. Youri Latortue, a Haitian senator, has suggested that the earthquake may have killed as many as 500,000.
Some of the U.S. residents who are worrying about loved ones in Haiti are in the insurance industry.
WHEC-TV, Rochester, N.Y., reported Wednesday that Dr. Marie Philippe, a senior vice president at Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield, Rochester, was still trying to reach relatives who have been living 15 milies from the center of the earthquake.
In other earthquake response news:
- Humana Inc., Louisville, Ky., says the Humana Foundation will give $100,000 for immediate support of earthquake-relief efforts, with $50,000 going to the American Red Cross, $50,000 going to Save the Children, and $25,000 going to Doctors Without Borders.
The foundation also will match up to $50,000 in employee contributions to those 3 charities dollar for dollar.
Doctors Without Borders had 3 hospitals in Haiti before the earthquake, but the quake destroyed the hospitals. The charity's staff members in Haiti are treating trauma injuries, fractures and burns in tents, Humana says.
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