Hi - not sure where this post should belong, but I want to make sure no one repeats the mistake my daughter made junior year. Apparently nowadays, schools make you buy their college health insurance unless you waive it. My daughter - who has since graduated from Smith College - received an email from an insurance company in the summer before junior year and thought it was spam, and ignored it. She was covered by our medical insurance, but because she did not respond to this place and decline the insurance, we had to pay $2000 that year extra for a policy we didn’t want - we could not get out of it past the deadline.
Worse, she ended up needing minor surgery at one point and had to be seen by a surgeon in town, Smith’s infirmary for daily post-op care, and on weekends she had to go in town for wound care because Smith’s infirmary was closed. She gave her BC/BS card when asked for insurance info. Ever since then, we have been dealing with bills! BC/BS said they were the secondary, the other - whatever it’s called - was primary. Fine - then the primary should pay. They agreed they were primary and should pay, on each of the million calls we had to make. But, the 2 companies wouldn’t talk to each other- she had to keep calling each one (waiting on hold forever each time) and telling them what the other one said, but then we’d get another bill and have to make all the calls again. We ended up paying hundreds extra just to get them off our back. You’d think we’d have MORE coverage having to pay $2000 extra for the policy we never wanted anyway, but instead there was so much red tape it has become a nightmare we’re still dealing with to this day. Her doctor here at home billed BC/BS and it started the red tape with Smith again, even though she did waive it for senior year so the policy has been inactive for over a year- the confusion is in their computer system forever, apparently.
Our son is entering college in the fall and that university sent the insurance waiver itself, so no one thought it was spam and we’ve waived it. Whew. But I wanted to warn all students that they could get emails from an insurance company that they need to check out!
This isn’t new. I remember my state university doing this back in the early 1980’s. Though i bet the premiums weren’t as expensive as they are now! Also, I only knew about the insurance waiver back then through some backwards way. Now, my daughters state university has it listed in their “to do” list for incoming freshman.
Sorry you had to deal with this mess! I’m sure I’m not the only person here who has BCBS nightmare stories too.
A warning to all human beings in general- it ain’t just health insurance. You can get an email from your homeowner’s insurance company with a notice that your policy is being reviewed; you can get a notice from your bank that the branch which has your safety deposit box is closing and you have 30 days to empty out the contents; you can get an email from the water company that they are imposing a “recycling surcharge” and you are going to be billed retroactively unless you provide proof that you were not living in the home for the last 6 months (i.e. you are the new owner).
These have all happened to people I know- caught them unawares, all perfectly legal.
We have an HMO with a limited coverage area, so bought the college insurance for our child who was 3000 miles away. But our understanding was that the parent’s insurance was primary, and the school insurance was secondary, which seems to be the opposite of what the OP listed. Glad that the school insurance lasts until Aug 31, as my H retired and she is no longer covered by us!
I believe each college handles insurance differently, as our other 2 kids’ schools did not automatically enroll them in insurance, and we did not have to fill out waivers for them.
We always look on the college website about this, for deadline and so on. But now one of my kids is older and back in undergrad, and she overlooked an email. The insurance company did, in fact, have an appeal path for waiver via petition, so we did that. Ask the financial aid office about this if it happens! Some schools may not have the petition option. We had to use the insurance company site, not the school’s.
Everything the insurance companies are doing to you is an intentional ruse to avoid paying for services. They are dodging a legal obligation, hiding behind feigned incompetence and a fake turf battle. I suggest you contact your state’s insurance commissioner to file a complaint, that you make contact with someone much higher in the primary insurer’s organization to let them know you would prefer not to have to pursue legal action, and that you stand ready to hire an attorney if those efforts fail. You also need to speak with someone much higher up at the medical center to make sure they bill the correct insurer.
OP I think you raise an important point about these student health plans and the question of coordination of benefits if the student has other coverage: e.g., which plan is primary. I just finished going through the tedious process of getting a waiver of the student health insurance for my D. We have a high deductible HSA Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO plan. This is the 3rd year I have had to go through the process of (1) submitting a request for a waiver, (2) having the waiver denied, (3) submitting an appeal petition for a high deductible plan, (4) having the appeal denied, (5) resubmitting all the paperwork while also contacting the college’s office of student affairs to ask for help, and (6) finally getting the appeal granted. At least I know the drill now so I can jump through the hoops faster. While doing all this, I tried going on the website for the student health insurance to examine the coverage. There was a “snapshot” of coverage, but the actual plan documents were unavailable and “coming soon.” So there was no way to examine the coordination of benefits rules for the plan.
My daughter will be starting graduate school in the Fall. As part of her fellowship, the school will pay for her medical insurance (Aetna). I, too, thought that having her covered by both Aetna and my insurance (BC/ BS) could only be a good thing.
I previously called BC/ BS to discuss what happens if my DD is covered by two insurance companies. The BC/ BS representative stated that they would be the primary insurance for my daughter and Aetna, the secondary.
Because of @ReluctantYankee post, I need to get more detailed information on having ‘double medical coverage’ before she accepts the school’s medical insurance.
Just to be clear. There was no “insurance confusion” in your case. Your D was fully informed and she purposely ignored it. She also ignored the Smith College webpage which shows cost of attendance and which also shows the medical coverage requirements.
wrt to the primary coverage. I would have taken it up with a college official. Someone at Smith signed that contract with the primary insurer. and they should be made aware that the primary was giving your the run-around.
Do be careful, though, if your child is OOS, to be sure your insurance will cover them at school. Emergency care is usually covered but there are lots of situations when you would want your child to be receiving regular care near school (i.e., injury that requires pt and medical follow up) rather than withdrawing to come home for care.
Many policies that have good coverage at a reasonable cost (i.e., the ones your employer is happy to offer) work only in a limited geography. BCBS offers some great plans like this in our state but there is ZERO coverage outside the state.
@gardenstategal BCBS did cover my DD in Massachusetts when she was an undergrad and will again cover her in the state she will reside in in September. We are fortunate to have very good medical coverage. But, I really thought that having her covered by two insurance companies would be GOOD.
I had the foresight to call BCBS to ensure that they would be her primary insurance but did not consider the possibility of battling with insurance companies to figure out who should pay the medical bill.
I’d also look at the plan you have when your student goes away to college. Many HMO’s do not cover out of network doctor visits. It might be worth switching to a PPO with wider geographic coverage. The BCBS system has reciprocity across most states.
A Blue Cross PPO or POS has coverage over many states. Their HMO plans do not.
I find it sort of interesting that some folks here have students with two sets of coverage…and my kid is hoping to,have ONE plan for 2018. Her school does not have health insurance…at all. And there are precious few individual plans in the state where she lives. And she is over 26. And the state is not a Medicaid expansion state.
@BLUEPH, there are BCBS plans that work out of state and ones that do not (including PPO plans.) My company allows us to “buy up” into a different plan that works out of state if needed. But the warning here is that many plans do not work OOS even when offered by “national” name carriers.
And if your employer is the one providing your coverage, it is possible that the plan that is provided to employees will not extend outside your area. Most plans that work out of state are more expensive for a company to buy (and often for employees to use), so if most of their employees are in one area, they will not spend the money. So check - (including at re enrollment time) to be sure you have what you want and what you think you have. There is no blanket advice here except check your policy.
This also happened to us when D2 started college, but her school was very nice about it, they waived it when I called even though it was past the deadline. I put her on her school’s insurance senior year because it was cheaper than to have her on my insurance and the school’s coverage was better. It was Aetna. I like their customer service and their online services (online filing, etc).
OP, I really appreciate you posting this. My kids too would have not opened an email from a random insurance company thinking it was spam. I can see a school emailing a student about health insurance requirements but not an unsolicited insurance company…
I have two sons in college (at different schools) and have never received emails about the health insurance waivers, Usually what happens for us is when tuition bills are posted in July online, I see they have the health insurance charge and then I quickly go online and file the waivers. I have found there is a several week period to do this, but it can be easily missed!!
I will relay to my sons to open any emails from insurance companies!
My D’s college has been pretty good about emailing both the students and the parents reminding them about the necessity of waiving the insurance. The email to the parents comes from the Dean of Students and says make sure your student doesn’t overlook the insurance email!
Insurance is a contract. The terms are all important and determine what IS and IS NOT covered. Some policies DO provide coverage for in-network providers throughout the US while others have specific geographic limitations. Coordination of benefits can be a hassle, as has been explained clearly in this thread. I do believe that insurers are happy to drag their feet and hope that insureds will get frustrated and just pay so it will all go away, but if folks are willing and able to fight for their rights, they can get the proper resolution. (I have been fighting off and on with insurer for the past 17 years to get the proper coverage and we mostly get what we are entitled to after some time and conversations).
It is important to pay attention to all emails and not blindly assume that something will be brought to your attention as to how to waive out of the University medical plan. They’re just as happy to have all students have the University medical plan. It’s on the students and families if they want to be sure to opt out. It can be tough to keep track of what’s important vs spam with all the overload everyone gets from Us, insurers, and all sorts of companies trying to sell us stuff. Still, it’s important to wade through and soft the important from the fluff.