New Cigna Policies to Include Coverage for Services for Hospital Workers Who Contract HIV From Patients

New Cigna Group Insurance policies will treat hospital workers who contract HIV from patients through on-the-job exposures as "accident victims" and will pay for their health needs, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. The new policies will cover the cost of additional services for such hospital workers, including health aides, special equipment and counseling. Previous employee accident policies focused on "gruesome industrial accidents," but such accidents have declined over the past 30 years and the focus has shifted to professional workplace accidents, the Inquirer reports. As many as 5,000 health care workers are exposed to HIV or hepatitis through needlesticks each year, according to a 1999 estimate by the American Nurses Association (DiStefano, Philadelphia Inquirer, 7/2).