Aetna

[~Em~]

I just got a letter from Aetna, my insurer. This is the second of its kind. It encloses a couple of "informational" items including a letter addressed to "Dear Aetna Member" and congratulating the recipient on becoming a new parent.

"Philips AVENT has teamed up with Aetna to offer you a limited time offer during this special time." It goes on to say that AVENT makes the "first feeding bottle clinically shown to reduce colic." It then offers a pack of 8 bottles, some pacis, and related items at a discount.

I have no problem with bottles, per se, and nowhere does it suggest offering formula, but it also does not suggest offering breastmilk (or that breastmilk - ideally from the BREAST - is optimal), and refers to a study that "At 2 weeks of age, babies fed with the AVENT bottle showed a trend to less colic than babies fed with a conventional bottle..." Clearly the study was based on formula fed babies and yet implies that the bottles can reduce colic for ALL babies, which is ridiculous on several levels.

The implication that all babies should use bottles, let alone at 2w old is also inappropriate in that it does not promote breastfeeding, IMO, especially since it appears to be endorsed by the health insurance company, which many people believe, however erroneously, has their and their babies' best interests at heart. I'm no expert, but IMO, any new mommy that is misled to think that their otherwise healthy, nursing, newborn should be taking bottles regularly by 2w has a decent chance of negatively affecting their BFing relationship.

Thoughts?

[Meiri]

Point out the flaws in their "logic" to them.

Point out that encouraging breastfeeding helps their bottom line in the long run. The least they could do, since some families do have to use bottles, is imply that it could be mother's milk in the bottles at least once.

[~Em~]

Thanks. There's nothing glaringly wrong with it, but there's nothing right either.

I EP'd for a year with my first child and plenty of women WOH or just want to offer expressed milk occasionally - or heck, even formula, but it just seems to be the wrong message to send to mommies of newborns, especially when endorsed by the health insurer.

I'll give them a call tomorrow.

[lacysmommy]

I agree with Meiri's suggestions. You could also suggest that they offer the breastpump at a discount as an option for moms who may not use bottles all that often, but would like to have a pump available on occasion, so maybe a coupon that could say something like, Either buy the 8 bottles OR buy the breastpump for XX discount.

[Bellita]

Wow, reason ten million and one why I hate Aetna with a passion. I am so glad we dumped them as our insurer. They caused such a nightmare for us because we chose to use a midwife and attempt a homebirth. Evil, evil, evil company...

[Llyra]

It's funny, because we had such a good experience with Aetna. I had a packet of information about breastfeeding sent unsolicited while I was pregnant. Then one of those nurses called me specifically to discuss breastfeeding. They used to call me occasionally because I was classified as high-risk, being pregnant with twins, a history of preterm labor, liver disease, and a congenital heart defect. They even wanted to send someone out to the house, although I refused that.

Anyway, she calls one day and asks me how I'm doing and do I plan to breastfeed, and tells me how thrilled she is that I am, and how I shouldn't let anyone discourage me from thinking I could breastfeed twins, and encouraging me to call some hotline or other if I ran into difficulty. I remember posting on here about it. Then I was called about two months PP for a poll, to find out how I was feeding the babies at that point. They were collecting info about breastfeeding rates.

[tylerin]

Why, you wonder, do different people have different experiences with Aetna? They are NOT, actually, an insurance company as I understand it. They are just a third party payor for companies who are really self-insured; in other words, they manage the claims but the company is the one that provides the bucket of money. I learned this one the hard way when my husband's company went bankrupt and I had outstanding medical claims that we wound up having to pay ourselves :P