Is anyone else experiencing the frustration of trying to get the health insurance requirement waived at their child’s university? Vanderbilt University has the most difficult process. I’m convinced it’s a money maker for the university as they require no “pre-authorization” conditions in your “hometown” policy benefits. I would like to hear of other parents’ experience with this issue at other colleges.
This isn’t new. You need to prove to the university that your coverage from OOS will cover your student in the locale where the college is located. TBH…that is a reasonable expectation.
One of my kids had to get a new policy in the state where she goes to grad school because her policy in our home state was a HMO with nothing but ER coverage OOS. It was fine because she was permanently moving anyway…as establishing residency there…but…it did cause some headaches along the way.
You need to check the provisions of your parent family plan to see if they fulfill what the college wants. Some plans just don’t.
TBH… I doubt that the college is making money off of your kid by having them purchase college health insurance.
Does Vandy still require a policy with something like a no more than $250 deductible? I vaguely remember hearing about that a while back, and it seemed bizarre because, even then, such policies had gone the way of the dodo bird. But as for whether Vandy makes money on their student health–yeah, they must. There’s no way the trustees would let them pick a broker that didn’t share a healthy slice of the big, fat, juicy pie. Anyway, now they also require that the policy not require pre-authorization? Also pretty rare these days, not to mention none of Vandy’s business. I am glad you’re sharing this; it sounds like a wholly unreasonable position.
Seems to have that 250 requirement still, for undergrads.
https://medschool.vanderbilt.edu/student-health/waiving-gallagher-student-insurance
My son went to Vandy (graduated last year) and I remember the waiver deadline coming very early each summer , but I don’t remember ever not being able to waive. Honestly how much can they be making if people must be calling to ask questions or complain about the waiver constantly? Speaking of making money, don’t tell Vandy, but their current tuition and fees are $6000 lLESS than at Skidmore currently, so if Vandy wanted more $$$ well, ssshhhh don’t tell.
There have been threads on CC about why colleges require insurance and waivers - might be worth a search.
I had to bump up to a higher insurance policy (we had the choice of basic or premium) in order to meet the requirements for my S’s college.
We just got the reminder email from our older D’s college about the health insurance waiver. The plan premium is $2,095. To waive you are supposed to have insurance with a deductible of no more than $1,000 per person or $2,000 per family. We have a high deductible HSA plan and got it waived the last two years even though our deductibles were $2600/$5200. This year our deductible is $3K/$6K but hoping and assuming we can get it waived again. The process of getting it waived is a bit slow and cumbersome, since in the past 2 years, our first request for waiver was denied and then we had to appeal that, and then we didn’t hear anything until the last minute when school started and they finally waived it.
Exactly. Some/many families have HMO coverage in the parent’s hometown, but it is not transportable if the same HMO does not exist in Nashville. Ditto an EPO (PPO with extremely limited provider coverage).
fwiw: WashU used to require that undergrads purchase the campus plan even if they had same/better coverage at home. Now that, is a money-maker. (Not sure if WashU still has that requirement.)
There was another thread about UCSB requiring the campus policy if the student’s existing coverage did not cover any providers for non emergency care within a 30 mile or so range from campus.
The people complaining had Kaiser plans, but there was no Kaiser within 30 miles of UCSB. But it seems odd that parents would expect their students to be able to get to a provider that far away for non emergency medical care, since that is not really a mass transit friendly route.
We just had to be sure to submit appropriate paperwork before the deadlines and it was good for a year. We did it each year for both our kids. We did buy S a policy for his last year, as he aged out of the family policy upon turning 22 in his SR year. It was quite reasonable tho we never made ANY claims. We also bought him several months of coverage until ACA allowed him to be covered under family policy since he was under 26.
There were some minimal requirements that the U required. Our family policy exceeded those–we had and have no deductible nor lifetime max.
One of our friends opted not to buy the U policy because they had Kaiser. Unfortunately when their D was badly hurt in a dancing accident, she needed expensive non-Kaiser emergency care. It cost the student and family A LOT.
I think it’s important to put the YEAR folks had their experiences. Things have changed a LOT in the health insurance arena. Many more folks with high deductible HSA accounts. Many policies that dont provide coverage across state lines.
My kids had no difficulty getting the school insurance waived but my younger child graduated in 2010 and we had a very rich Anthem PPO at the time. Not very many PPOs are even offered any longer.
as they say…times have changed.
My kids had medical insurance waivers 2006-2013. Yes, each U can set its own requirements that must be followed to get a waiver. Also, the family must decide whether they want to take the risk that in an emergency their young adult may end up receiving care from an out-of-network place, with the costs that can be VERY significant.
The last year when D2 was in college (2016), it was cheaper and better plan for her to be on the school plan. I was able to elect single coverage at work instead of +1. Her school plan was very comprehensive and it also covered her when she was home.
Watching this thread with interest, since I think we’re going to apply for the waiver for next year (DS will be a senior), for the first time. Up until now (since leaving my state employment and starting my own business) we’ve had high-deductible HSA-eligible coverage; when DS left for college 4000 miles away, I thought it would be better for him to have the comprehensive school coverage, so we dropped him from our plan. (Also I thought the waiver might be hard to get with the high-deductible plan). But now, I’m getting small group coverage for my employees (I now have an employee who needs it, and Hawaii requires that we provide it for all employees who work 20 hrs/wk or more), so we’re biting the bullet and signing up. Much higher premiums, of course, but 0 deductible and great coverage (PPO, nationwide network, low copays, etc.). Turns out it’s a little cheaper to put DS on there than to pay for the school plan. Hope all goes smoothly. At least now I know some things to watch out for.
One thing that’s rough for low income kids, is that Medicaid from another state doesn’t qualify for the waiver. A handful of colleges will pay for the health insurance for low income kids but most do not.
Making sure to meet deadline dates of the Us is very important and prove you meet all the requirements. I had the jnsurer write a letter verifying it met the requirements the U set forth. We had to get the Insurer to issue a card in D’s and S’s name too (she and he had been using card in H’s name all their lives).
Would that handful of colleges mostly coincide with those that provide good need-based financial aid?
It’s not only the schools that require medical insurance, but some states are pretty specific too. Massachusetts schools seem to require very specific coverage and then require students to buy an instate policy. This goes back to when Mass had the state version of Obama care. That’s a LOT of healthy 20 year olds paying into the state insurance programs.
Both my kids go to schools where the ‘waiver’ is simply “Do you want our insurance plan?” and if you check No they take it off the bill.
It is very important to know what your family policy does and does NOT cover if your stiludent is out of state. We were fortunate that our policy did and still does cover all in-network providers anywhere in the US and out of network providers at a lower rate as well.
Your student is still on the hook for medical costs incurred, whether or not insurance adequately covers it. Not all policies are created equal so don’t automatically decide you don’t want the school’s policy. Read the policy you have and the U’s offered policy and ask questions you need to make an informed choice, including comparing premiums.
Some/all? colleges in MA will allow a waiver for a student who has a comparable family plan from OOS that will offer coverage to MA health care providers. In other words, a broad PPO-type network.