A bill from a doctor’s office, insurance company, or the hospital can seem like jibberish to the average person.The litany of codes that are used can be confusing as readers try and tie the procedure they had to the various letter-number combinations on the statement.Many of us don’t even attempt to make sense of it.Most of us don’t worry or think about the number of people who have probably seen this information, people we don’t even know the person in the insurance company who stuffs the envelopes, the various people in the hospital accounts office, the human resources department on the job, perhaps even the postal worker who inadvertently saw it when the seal came unglued.This doesn’t bother most of us because we don’t envision these people sitting down and trying to decipher the medical codes and then bothering to link the testing we’ve had done to who we are so they can pass the information on as gossip. These codes, although not designed to do so, offer a degree of privacy. It’s this privacy that HIV-positive people like ‘Tanya’ are calling for in Bermuda. Currently HIV-testing is boldly listed on KEMH customer billing statements as HIV-1 TEST. “I think it should be coded,” said Tanya. “Although that information is supposed to be confidential, so many people are seeing it the person who has to punch it into the computer, the person stuffing envelopes. It’s not fair.”Tanya believes that coding the test would render the confidential information jibberish to the layperson, affording those who take the HIV test a degree of privacy.“I asked a lady in the hospital accounts department why it was spelled out so clearly on my statement and she told me that it had to be so for insurance companies,” said Tanya.That understanding was confirmed by a Bermuda Hospitals Board spokeswoman (BHB). She said: “Currently, billing for all laboratory diagnostics, including HIV testing, is identified by name to our insurers who pay the claims. “BHB is sensitive that this may be a cause for concern for patients and has begun discussions with insurance companies about using a numeric coding system for HIV tests.”Bermuda Health Council Chief Executive Officer Jennifer Attride-Stirling said she was aware of the concern among the HIV-positive community, and of BHB’s efforts to resolve the matter with insurers. Neither BHB nor the Health Council gave any indication as to when an agreement was likely to be reached.