Communicating with employees, members, plan sponsors, providers and other key constituents:
We believe that communicating with you, our employees and others who rely on Aetna about our pandemic planning is essential, even before an outbreak occurs. Since the fall of 2005 we've been providing educational information about the avian flu and updates on our readiness activities. Aetna is committed to continue sharing information with you about our preparations to serve you and your employees in a pandemic. Your Aetna representative, as well as our medical directors and members of our pandemic planning team, are also available to speak with you or your employees about the avian flu and actions you can take to prepare for a pandemic.
Should a pandemic occur, Aetna will communicate with you and your employees about any changes to our processes or policy modifications as quickly and efficiently as possible. In addition to information available through your Aetna representative and our member services teams, we will provide easily accessible information on Aetna.com, including news releases, to alert you and our members to policy modifications.
Our telephone lines will be open. Our member services teams will be available with up-to-date information. Our nurses and behavioral health experts can counsel members who may be experiencing anxiety or need special assistance during the crisis. As appropriate, Aetna can also establish and promote a single toll-free number to assist members who need help finding care, accessing their medical histories or obtaining self-care information. Additionally, we will work with the Association of Health Insurance Plans to help ensure consistency of information, as we did for Hurricane Katrina, which may include the establishment of an industry hotline to direct members who have lost contact information for their insurers.
