<p>The student run WUSTLs newspaper once again protest the university policy of forcing undergraduate students to pay a health insurance fee even when every student (except a few internationals) already has health insurance thought their parents. There are only five universities in this country with such policy and none of them are WUSTLs peer schools.
Under the title of Mandatory Health Insurance Needs to be reevaluated, the editorial forum reveals the need of a change many times ignored from this 5.9 billion endowment institution. Every year thousands of prospects students receive wonderful brochures and unstoppable mail from Wash U but none of them says that their parents would have this hidden fee if they are accepted because the health insurance is mandatory with no way to opt-out. Worst of all, the university doesnt take responsibility for the insurance company actions, kids that received medical attention at the SHS were denied health benefits from the insurance and they received a letter asking for the full amount of the service or they would be dealing with a collector agency.</p>
<p>Can the parents' insurance be primary and the school insurance secondary? My concern is not so much the extra cost as it is the aggravation.</p>
<p>Mmomm, I asked that and the answer was no, but in our case we are paying almost everything with our own insurance because all the claims were denied by the Wash U insurance, even from the “WU physicians” that are not part of the company network. I rather deal with my own insurer since the beginning saving time and my own sanity.
Did you read in the student run newspaper? I didn’t know the faculty was also upset with the system.</p>
<p>I contacted my insurance carrier and the representative told me that my insurance is primary over any school offered policies. They suggested that if my D has to visit a specialist or the hospital she should make sure that the provider is in network and then use her insurance card.
However, according to WashU their insurance is primary.
I prefer using my insurance, where I know I don't have to submitt any claims, and everything is taking care electronically.
I stressed to my D the importance of carrying the insurance card with her, and discussed with her the different hospitals in our network.</p>
<p>It’s a good idea to do that; I’m regretting I didn’t do it before.</p>
<p>Cressmom,
your unfortunate experience, is what really opened my eyes.
I am glad to learn that your S is doing so much better.</p>
<p>Okay, I'm officially confused and disappointed. I called Student Health Services to verify and indeed, they say that the student insurance has to be primary. We have excellent insurance for a reason. Messing with the ease of health care could very well be a deal breaker for us. How sad. Thanks, Trapper, for bringing this to our attention.</p>
<p>One of the girls in my group had some sort of food allergies she wasn’t aware of and she had to go to the hospital and now she is dealing with insurance claims no one can’t understand them, so her mom try to do them but she couldn’t because my friend is over 18. One suggested to ask for a waiver to her mom but it is more complicated that it should be since SHS give her a phone number to call and it seem to be from some place outside the area.<br>
My mom will see a lawyer to have that waiver from me just in case. SHS only accepts the Wash U insurance as primary provider; we can’t escape from have it.</p>
<p>nmsgklll, I just called our insurance company and they told me the same thing. Thank goodness.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Okay, I'm officially confused and disappointed. I called Student Health Services to verify and indeed, they say that the student insurance has to be primary. We have excellent insurance for a reason. Messing with the ease of health care could very well be a deal breaker for us. How sad. Thanks, Trapper, for bringing this to our attention.
[/quote]
SHS can't force you to use one insurance over another when you're not dealing with SHS. If I ever was sent to the hospital, I'd feel much more comfortable using my existing insurance under my parents' account than using Wash U's provider.</p>
<p>Yes, I see that it would all work out okay now. It's not an ideal situation, but it's workable. I'm happy again. :)</p>
<p>I agree with oncampus. My son uses Wash U mandatory insurance when going to student health, and our own insurance for using medical care elsewhere. It's so much easier using our own; he only pays the co-pay and everything else is submitted by the doctor/hospital and paid at in-network rates.</p>
<p>I hope they exempt students from the mandatory insurance plan with proof of other insurance--by next year!</p>
<p>SO the net of what I am reading is...</p>
<p>Keep the student on the family health plan. In general do NOT go to Student Health Services, but elsewhere, and use your provate insurance. If you do go to SHS, maybe for just an antibiotic or a minor injury, then they will use the Wash U insurance as primary whether you like it or not.</p>
<p>Is that the sum of the opinion here?</p>
<p>HartinGA - I think it probably depends on each family's situation in terms of what their family insurance looks like compared to what Wash U offers. Additionally, if the student has special health needs, that could be a factor. It's probably more inconvenient to go off campus to see a dr, so some students might prefer to stick with SHS regardless. As for me, I'm just glad that our insurance is considered primary outside of SHS.</p>
<p>As I see for the answers given that parents don’t use the Wash U health insurance but they don’t care to throw away $ 700 (7% more next year) of their money, but I also know many parents that can’t afford to do that because they had borrowed from equity lines and loans the college’s cost, and this situation it’s plain unfair. Millions of people in this country can’t afford a health insurance and Wash U doesn’t get it, it feel that it’s normally acceptable to force students to have at least two health insurance policies.</p>
<p>re CONSENT (for Trapper): WashU has a form that students can sign to grant parental access to health records and related info, one doesn't need a lawyer. Print the form from:
<a href="http://shs.wustl.edu/forms/ROI_0407.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://shs.wustl.edu/forms/ROI_0407.pdf</a>
The student has to turn it in personally; in our case SHS required the student to show student I.D. before they would accept it.</p>
<p>Note also, that according to SHS, checking "all of the above" under "the following information" does NOT include copies of the insurance explanation of benefits (EOBs) and bills. Our principal reason for filing this was to enable me to handle the bills (which unfortunately are a monthly task). Student had to write in "all bills and billing information" under "other". Even after that, SHS billing clerk insists on handing a physical bill/EOB to the student, rather than send to me directly by email or postal mail. This obviates the main reason we filed the form. But it still allows me to call SHS to obtain additional information when I need it. </p>
<p>Re OTHER INSURANCE: We also have a family health policy, which normally would be the student's primary insurance. Since WashU insurance is both mandatory and primary, our family insurance automatically becomes secondary and pays 100% of whatever WashU's Great-West Healthcare policy does not pay. If you have a family policy, submit all unpaid claims to that company with the WashU SHS bill (which they label "Walk-Out Statement" and should be treated as an EOB by your secondary insurance company since insurance paid by Great Western already has been credited). Almost all medical policies provide secondary coverage if they are not primary bcause of another policy. If you are in this situation, you should be able to obtain 100 percent reimbursement for all covered costs. (I haven't figured out yet what happens when a doctor is a preferred provider on the secondary insurance (which often results in a substantial write-down of the charge) but is not a preferred provider on the primary insurance. Since WashU's policy and company is very limited compared to my BlueCross policy, I expect this to come up and may be a problem.)</p>
<p>FSA. If you do not get 100 percent reimbursement for whatever reason, any remaining costs are eligible for payment from a Healthcare Flexible Spending Account (FSA) if you have one. Check at your workplace about this if "FSA" doesn't mean anything to you. This is your own money, and tax free, but there are a lot of strings attached and you could lose money if your claims fall short of the amount you estimate and contribute, so study the details carefully before signing up. Annual sign-up period is October or November for most companies. </p>
<p>BTW, Dr. Glass, in his statements to incoming freshman parents, said that the policy is primary because Missouri state law requires student health insurance to be primary. While this seems odd, of course making its purchase mandatory for all students and employees is solely a WashU decision.</p>
<p>I don't believe you all have the choice to decide which insurance company you use - primary means that Wash U's insurance company has to be billed first. Then your own company is billed for whatever they don't cover. You really do have to present both cards or I believe you might be liable for fraud. </p>
<p>Disclaimer - I'm not a lawyer or health care expert, just experienced in dealing with this issue with Wash U along with our own health insurance.</p>
<p>The only time my son did not present both cards, at home and at Wash U was with prescrips, since those are not covered. </p>
<p>We also had the catch 22 of our own plan not covering prescrips unless a network doctor prescribed it.</p>
<p>BCBS told me that by federal law they are primary over any student insurance. Apparently by MO law, Wash U's student insurance is primary. That seems as clear as mud to me. I don't think it's fraud. It would be fraud if someone is trying to trick their insurance into paying for something that they shouldn't. If the insurance company knows all the facts and still says that they are primary, then there is not any deception IMHO. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong.</p>
<p>Mmom, the catch, I believe is the terminology "student insurance". Most student insurance is not comprehensive enough to be deemed primary. I was told 4 years ago that the coverage from Wash U is comprehensive enough to be considered primary - I don't know how that plays into the Missouri law because somehow I find it hard to believe that most college health plans would qualify as primary. Maybe Missouri law requires mandatory college health coverage to be comprehensive enough to be primary. ( boy is that a confusing sentence!) I would need to see the exact wording of the law.</p>
<p>In terms of the use of the word fraud, that is why I put a disclaimer - I don't know what it's called, only that your insurance company will want to know if you have any other kind of coverage. Just because your intentions are all well and good, from a legal standpoint your insurance company needs to know that you have other coverage and that it is considered primary. It is not for your insurance company to decide whether the Wash U plan is primary or not. </p>
<p>Believe me, I don't like it either but I went through extensive conversations with Wash U and my own insurance company to figure this all out. It is a hassle, no doubt.</p>
<p>There is a poster on CC that deals with health insurance and knows a great deal - I can't remember his or her name but it might be worth searching and then asking him to clarify.</p>