<p>we are from out of state and our health insurance does not reach down to North Carolina. A few questions: 1) Is there an infirmary/health center at WFU and how are the services? 2) How does the payment system work since WFU does not have its own health care insurance? 3) We will probably get outside insurance, like what WFU sent for United HealthCare. Is United the best, is that why it was sent along? We can compare prices of other companies but we don't have any idea who the local doctors/hospitals are and what insurance they accept.
Any help, quickly, would be much appreciated!!</p>
<p>I'm not sure about the health insurance, but I can tell you that we do have the Student Health center, which is pretty helpful. It's free to see a doctor but you'll pay for prescriptions, vaccinations, etc. They can do most normal things on-site (such as prescribe stuff to you when you get sick). For more serious things, such as a potential broken bone (I've had experience in that area!) they will send you off-site for a X-ray. WFU Baptist Hospital is probably the primary hospital that Wake kids have to go to, for really serious things.</p>
<p>Don't know if this helps any or not...check out Student Health's page, if you haven't already, as well.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.wfu.edu/shs/%5B/url%5D">http://www.wfu.edu/shs/</a></p>
<p>Check the state you are going to be attending school in Office of the insurance commissioner. They should list the approved carriers doing business there. ONLY use approved carriers as you have absolutely no legal (oic) help if there's a problem. And remember problems usually occur WHEN you've had a claim. </p>
<p>There should be a variety of policies availible for purchase. You just have to spend a little internet time looking around. Check the school's minimum requirements for coverage too. As far as United Healthcare... slow to pay claims.. a company not known for quality service. You should be able to find better.</p>
<p>juba's right, the doctors in the infirmary are free, but you've got to pay for prescriptions, vaccinations, and bloodwork that has to be sent off site. They also don't take insurance for those things which aren't free (or at least they didn't last time I checked), so if you have an insurance policy which covers prescriptions, I think that you'll need to get them filled at another pharmacy if you want someone who'll take the insurance (please note that this could've changed--it's been nearly three years since I needed to get anything from them). The prices for what you do have to pay for are generally fairly good as well. I had to pay a fair amount for my meningitis vaccination, but I don't think that anything else has cost me more than $10. Also, the couple of times when I've needed to either have a copy of my immunization records or needed to have them sent/faxed somewhere, it's been done in an incredibly prompt manner.</p>
<p>The only place that your insurance will come into play is if you need to go to the hospital or something like that. Like Juba said, they send people to the hospital for broken bones and for x-rays. That's actually the only thing for which I've heard of people going to the hospital from student health. Of course, anything really serious is going to be sent to the hospital just like any doctor's office would do, but Student Health is actually really, really good about doing as much as possible in the office.</p>
<p>My son had lots of experience with student health his first two years at Wake. The care he received was very good, good communication with referring drs., good communication with us as parents (he signed waiver so they could talk with us). Twice he had to be taken to ER and both times they sent him to the other hospital (Forsythe Memorial). They were also good about communicating with professors regarding missed classes, limited activity, etc.</p>
<p>I'm not sure about the Rx and insurance--come to think of it, he did have his filled at an off campus pharmacy. Though I know they gave him small amount of doses to get through a day kind of thing.</p>
<p>Dr. Price who is head of student health was very kind and easy to get hold of. I felt that I got to know him pretty well as son had two emergency surgeries in his first 3 semesters there.</p>
<p>Son was still covered under our insurance, so didn't have any issues there.</p>