Sued by Aetna over botched mail notifications, KCC fires back, suing Aetna

“I sue you,
You sue me,
We both sue too easily.
Too easily to let it show.
I sue you and that’s all I know.”
— wrote Art Garfunkel never.

Alison Frankel reports:

A day after Aetna sued the claims administrator Kurtzman Carson Consultants for exposing confidential medical information about Aetna clients in a settlement notification, a KCC subsidiary brought a new suit blaming Aetna and its lawyers at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher for failing to protect the privacy of Aetna customers.

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In a complaint filed Monday in Philadelphia federal court, the insurer blamed KCC for the botched notifications, claiming that the claims administrator never told Aetna it was going to mail the settlement notifications in an envelope with a transparent window, never tested the mailing to see what information showed through the window and never asked Aetna or Gibson Dunn to approve the mailing. Aetna wants KCC to indemnify it for the entire cost of the notification disaster.

KCC, however, said in its new complaint in Los Angeles federal court that Aetna and Gibson Dunn knew what the notifications would look like. “Aetna and Gibson knew that windowed envelopes were being used in the mailings in question,” the complaint said.

Read more on Reuters.