5 Tips for Parents Whose Students are Off to College for the First Time

<p>Mine is the only one. I am really out of sorts.</p>

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<p>Assume this is for me, since I posted about insurance/etc? We are on our 2nd kid in college, first one has graduated. It really varies based on health plan, my point is that you should know BEFORE your kid goes what they need to do in order to get care outside the routine stuff handled by the campus health service (which is ALWAYS closed when needed at D2’s school… :frowning: ). One of ours started with insurance that had a sort of “secondary network” outside our home area. We had to tell the insurance company when she came and went from school EVERY time so she could be covered in whichever network area she was in. Pain in the tush. Partway through her college experience they dropped the outside network and just covered at a lower rate for outside network care. Second kid is on a Blue Cross plan – they have a national network, but you gotta search by location and specialty to find doctors and facilities. So of course it will vary with your own insurance plan and can change from year to year. The point I was trying to make is that is really best to know the insurance situation for urgent care visits, ER visits, regular dr. visits, dentists, eye doctors, and medications. Your kid will have no idea…</p>

<p>Also, make sure your kid keeps an eye on their email for the health insurance waiver email that usually comes in the summer. Most colleges send it to the kid vs. parent, and kid ignores… then parents get whacked with insurance on the bill because waiver form wasn’t filled out because kid neglected to mention it… This can usually be taken care of, but a hassle for everyone.</p>

<p>Also, if your kid has to see a healthcare provider off campus, encourage them to sign the paperwork allowing you to see their records, etc. Much easier to sort out billing issues if you can just call directly.</p>

<p>I pushed my son all summer to prepare him for the different lifestyle he would encounter at college. He is our first born and I miss him terribly already. I know there will be things I taught him, things he got mad at me for repeating over and over again, that he forgets. Sometimes, our children do need to/benefit from learning “the hard way.” In fact, I know that I am part of the problem - my inability to resist the urge to do everything I could for him the past 18 years made him too dependent on us. My other kids are much more independent. We will all survive!</p>