Help for All Affected by Haiti Earthquake

The earthquake in Haiti is affecting people around the world. Friends and family members are frantic to learn about and help their loved ones in Haiti. Aetna is taking steps to reach out and help our members in Haiti and elsewhere deal with this disaster.

Help for members with loved ones in Haiti
All Aetna members can call our Employee Assistance Program during this time of need. You can contact Aetna EAP 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Aetna's EAP professionals have experience dealing with traumatic events.  We can consult with you over the phone and offer support and information. We can also refer you to a full spectrum of resources including community-based, governmental and relief agencies.

• Aetna U.S. Employee Assistance Program: 1-888-AETNA-EAP (1-888-238-6232) or 866-843-6323 (for the hearing impaired) 
• Aetna Global Benefits International Service Center and International Employee Assistance Program:  1-800-231-7729 (toll-free) or 1-813-775-0190 (collect)

We also have some tips online that may help. Are you trying to find out more about a loved one in Haiti? Are you trying to deal with the feelings of stress, worry, helplessness, sorrow and frustration?

See Coping While Sitting on the Sidelines  (PDF).

Other ways Aetna is helping
We are reaching out to our customers with employees in Haiti to offer medical evacuation for those injured and other assistance.

For families filing a life insurance claim, Aetna is expediting the claim payment process and extending claim submission dates. Aetna Disability and Absence Management is expediting the claim processing, extending deadlines for filing claims, and modifying procedures to speed payment for those members affected by the recent tragic events.

• Aetna Group Life:  1-800-523-5065
• Aetna Disability and Absence Management:  1-866-537-7628

Aetna Foundation and Aetna Employees Supporting Organizations Working In Haiti
Foundation and employee giving on track to exceed $325,000 

As an urgent need for funds is made clear by relief organizations already equipped to mobilize relief efforts in Haiti, the Aetna Foundation identified six organizations that each received $10,000 immediately to help fund their relief efforts. This $60,000 in Haitian relief contributions will be in addition to an estimated $161,000 that Aetna employees have already pledged to support relief efforts, which is being matched by the Aetna Foundation dollar-for-dollar. This combined effort is expected to exceed over $185,000.

The Aetna Foundation is providing this support to:

• The University of Miami – Global Institute for medical missions to Port-au-Prince, including neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons and trauma/emergency physicians.
• The Miami-Dade United Way, for Operation Helping Hand, of which 100 percent of funds are earmarked for Haiti. 
• Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)’s United States operations. MSF has already treated more than 1,000 people in Haiti since Tuesday, and is deploying an inflatable hospital with operating theaters in the next day. 
• Food for the Poor, an organization that routinely provides food for thousands of Haitians daily. Food for the Poor has extensive relief operations in place in Haiti and is sending 400 containers of rice, beans, water, blankets, lumber and repairing zinc. 
• The American Red Cross, which is using its significant domestic and international disaster relief capabilities to help meet priority needs for food, water, temporary shelter, medical services and emotional support, as well as blood and blood products.
• The United Nations Foundation for the UN Central Emergency Response Fund
  The Aetna Foundation has initiated a dollar-for-dollar match for employee disaster relief donations to help the relief efforts in Haiti. 

Aetna’s Community Relations group also has activated its 47 Aetna Volunteer Councils to engage with relief agencies to respond to this disaster by collecting goods and funds and offering other assistance.