GMA Gets Answers: Aetna's Response

Health insurance company explains "coding error."

ByABC News

October 14, 2010, 8:51 PM

Oct. 15, 2010 -- This morning "Good Morning America" featured a report about a woman who claimed her insurance company, Aetna, denied her newborn baby coverage due to a pre-existing condition. The company later apologized and said the mistake was a simple coding error.

CLICK HERE to see "Good Morning America's" original report and read a statement form Aetna below.

We've apologized to Mrs. Barnes for the coding error and for not notifying her immediately in July when we fixed it. Nonetheless, we have correctly paid numerous claims totaling more than $300,000 for both the baby and Mrs. Barnes, and their hospitals had Aetna's approval for the care to be covered from the beginning. Mrs. Barnes has never been billed by the hospitals due to our error.
We correctly process nearly 450 million claims each year, but mistakes do happen and are usually resolved between Aetna, hospitals and doctors.