<p>How much is the Vandy insurance for students coming in with no previous insurance?</p>
<p>The VU plan is $1844 for the 2014-2015 year (12 months: Aug 2014 to July 2015). Doesn’t matter whether or not the student has/had previous insurance. One price fits all.</p>
<p>Go9rsjrh, congrats on getting the waiver! Looks like VU will allow a deductible higher than their $200, but won’t consider a co-insurance greater than 80/20. I’m sure my combination $3500 pp deductible and 70/30 co-insurance sunk us.</p>
<p>FWIW, even though our policy is an ACA HMO in a state other than TN, I called my insurance company and was told that my son’s TN claims would be covered 100% (out of state and out of network) as if they had occurred in network in our state because he is going to an accredited 4-year educational institution and will be a fulltime student. </p>
<p>Had our waiver been approved, the burden would have been on my son to find a primary care provider in Nashville who would agree to accept the same reimbursement rates offered by this particular insurance company in our state. We’ll never know how easy or difficult that task might have been because our waiver was denied. </p>
<p>My H just started a new job. I sent the insurance info along to Vandy and thankfully we were approved. I guess with Aetna POS policies, you can go to doctors anywhere. Thank goodness a month ago we opted for the more inclusive (more expensive) plan as I don’t think the cheaper option would’ve allowed us to qualify for the Vandy waiver. This is good news as we just paid $3,800 out of pocket for an MRI with the last employer’s insurance. </p>
<p>@DianeC You said “VU will only grant a waiver request if your deductible is no more than $200 per person (that’s right - two hundred dollars - such a low deductible is virtually unheard of in today’s health insurance environment) AND your co-insurance is no more than 80/20.”<br>
I have a HSA with a $4,000 deductible and was approved for the waiver. My insurance company listed my daughter as an out of state dependant fully covered. The only difference from our plan is that she is covered 70/30 after the deductible is met whereas we are 90/10. I’m not sure if it varies depending on state or company but we are from Michigan. This is the second year we have been waived. </p>
<p>The waivers are decided by Gallagher Koster, the Insurance Carrier for Vandy student health insurance! Seems to me they have a conflict of interest here…the more they deny waivers, the more insurance they sell to extremely healthy and low risk clients, with almost no risk to them. Also the rates went up dramatically from last year ($1381 to $1844). Have any families had difficulty getting waivers for health insurance? I know of a few cases, some were found to be arbitrary, and reversed on review!</p>
<p>We had quite a bit of difficulty. It was a very frustrating process and ridiculous as we are covered by a major plan with full coverage. In the end they were missing the two digit extension on the policy number. There was never an indication of that in all of our communications. Once they entered it all was fine and the waiver granted. It was WAY harder than it should have been and the folks at Gallagher were close to useless.</p>
<p>There’s definitely something wrong with the system.</p>
<p>Exactly! There is something wrong with a system that allows the Insurance Carrier to autonomously decide to deny waivers and push their own product on families. The system works more for the Insurance Carrier than for these healthy young students who rarely have any significant claims against the insurance, so it is a huge profit margin. Gallagher is almost impossible to navigate…try figuring out which person or department to contact, and then try contacting them! Very opaque and frustrating system. Vanderbilt needs to closely keep an eye on how these folks operate. Sometimes when they deny waivers, they give NO reason for it. And what’s with their arbitrary “deadlines”…seems like a rigged game! If enough families have had a bad experience, senior Vanderbilt Administration should be told about this arbitrary and self serving system run by Gallagher.</p>
<p>@yellowgranite56 all my textbooks and supplies are under $300. Try looking for used, paperback, international editions of books to save money. Also try renting books for classes that don’t last a year.</p>