<p>My daughter will be at Rice next year and we live out of state. I'm wondering if some of you current Rice students and parents can tell me how you decided to handle health insurance and how it's worked out. I could leave my daughter on our current plan, and schedule regular doctor/dentist appointments for her when she's home visiting, plus Rice's health center for routine stuff. If she had an emergency, our insurance would cover it as an out-of-area emergency, which might be okay, but if she needed regular follow-up care, I'm not sure they'd cover it out of state. Still, it might be cheaper to pay for that out of pocket than to switch her to the Chickering plan that Rice offers. What have other people done about this?</p>
<p>We're also from out of state and I kept S on our health insurance because it's much cheaper than Rice's and the coverage is better. He has had medical treatment in Houston a couple of times and he made sure to use Blue Cross Blue Shield in-network providers and was fully covered.</p>
<p>However, it sounds as if you should call your insurance company first and find out how they were cover your daughter in Houston - check their network providers list.</p>
<p>Also an out of state parent. It would have been more expensive to buy the Rice plan (assuming we would drop our son from our family coverage). My son also used our network providers when he needed care in Houston and it worked out fine.</p>
<p>Another out of state here. We kept DD on the home plan and it has worked out just fine.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the helpful advice! It turns out Blue Cross has a "guest membership" for college students, so I can transfer her membership to Houston for the next 4 years. Before I can do that, they want a mailing address for her. Do I just give the main mailing address at Rice, or are students assigned an individual address/routing number (and when does that happen)? Thanks again.</p>
<p>You'll get an address in July when assignments are made to a residential college. That address will be the one your child will have for all 4 years.</p>
<p>How do we waive Rice's insurance plan? I'm already covered under another plan.</p>
<p>There should be an insurance waiver included in the forms you received from Rice.</p>
<p>Hmmm...I didn't get one, and the link listed on the back of my bill for the waiver form doesn't seem to be working. I'll just call them tomorrow.
Thanks anyhow!</p>
<p>Out of state here. I'm self employed so I purchase private insurance, which is expensive. We put our son on the Rice plan. So far, he's scheduled all his doctor's appointments for when he comes home, and they take the Rice plan. (I believe it's an AETNA plan). So far, so good (fingers crossed).</p>
<p>Another out-of-state parent of a recent Rice grad). Definitely keep your family plan, especially if it is a national insurance plan. We were in CA when our s. broke his leg and required surgery. It was done in CA, with follow-up at Memorial Hosp. across the street from Rice. The insurance was accepted/covered in CA and TX (we live elsewhere). Keep in mind, Rice sends the students across to the medical centers and to the doc-in-the box clinics for lots of stuff (stitches, dermatology consults, etc) and who knows if it would be covered by the Rice plan. The kids may travel to the beach in Galveston, or go on a cruise. Rice insurance will be of limited use. Also, my s had to get meds to take in preparation for a volunteer trip to Central America (quinine, etc) . That was covered under our health plan- but doubt it'd be on the Rice plan. All of his prescriptions were filled at the local CVS drug store- which takes our insurance too. So, my suggestion-- stay with your company family insurance plan.</p>
<p>The link for the insurance waiver (found on the back of the snail mail bill) worked fine yesterday. It takes about a minute to fill out.</p>
<p>The Rice plan is adminstered by the Chickering Group in Cambridge, MA. You can go on their website. Somewhere, there's a place to search for the Rice plan. This would allow you to read about the coverage before deciding.</p>
<p>I called a couple days ago, and the lady who answered said that the website hadn't been updated yet for this year. But yes, the link works fine now.</p>