<p>Does anyone know if "Health Plus (New York Sate Health Insurance program)" is qualify for a Medical Insurance waiver in UB?</p>
<p>I live in NYC if thats relevant. Thanks a lots.</p>
<p>Check the UB requirements and what is provided under your insurance plan, see if they match up. Most insurance plans seem to be fine.</p>
<p>thx for your help…</p>
<p>just curious, did you get your insurance waived?</p>
<p>This is such a rip, sneaking this on the bill… why!? Do you know how many students are not going to see this and pay this… who don’t need it!!! People should call or write the school and complain!!</p>
<p>It’s not “snuck” onto the bill. You agree to this as part of attending UB and most other schools. If you have insurance you take the 5 minutes to fill out a form and if you don’t you pay the $2000.</p>
<p>They also make it pretty clear via emails and information packets (or at least they used to) that this would be charged if the student has not waived it with appropriate coverage.</p>
<p>The other option is they don’t charge anyone for it, and there are students who do not have insurance that don’t get it. That’s a bigger liability for the university.</p>
<p>If you’re a student not looking at your bill…then it’s your own fault.</p>
<p>They are doing things a bit differently this year it seems…and no, it’s not really as obvious now that they are not mailing bills! I suspect many kids whose parents are not finding the HUB system very friendly will miss this. Anyway, you should have received a brochure in the mail from Aetna Student Health in the last month or so, but it’s fairly easy to mistake it for other college junk mail if you’re an incoming freshman. The process and online waiver form are described but the actual choices for info providing are quite limited and, IIRC, do not allow specification of any NYS sponsored health plans. </p>
<p>After you submit, you’ll get a confirmation email in your UB email which may state that UB has requested that your insurance info be verified and you’ll be notified in 2 weeks…that has never happened with us before this year. Less than 48 hours later, my D received a rather nasty email from Aetna saying her NYS insurance didn’t meet UB requirements (it actually exceeds them) and telling her she had to get her insurance company (who has a huge network in Erie County, but no offices in our home county) to sign a form! It’s pretty clear that they made no attempt to verify in such a short amount of time so I promptly sent an email to the SBI medical insurance office and am awaiting a reply. </p>
<p>The insurance costs/requirements have gotten out of hand at UB and are in fact the highest among the SUNY universities. I suspect UB/SBI receives a commission of some sort as Stony Brook also uses Aetna, but at a greatly reduced rate. Binghamton’s student insurance is $500/year and student insurance is not required at Albany.</p>
<p>Health insurance is important but forcing kids to duplicate insurance, particularly low-income kids, is ridic and a complete waste of tax dollars. OP and others in this situation, if your waiver is denied, I would certainly fight it and contact the office of your elected state representatives if you get any pushback from UB on this. Fwiw, our experience over three years has been that these annoyingly common problems with UB are resolved much quicker with parent intervention! Good luck and you may pm me if you’d like an update on the outcome of our appeal.</p>
<p>We applied for the waiver, as we do every year and had a response within 48 hrs. Never a problem and waived again. My other son went to UMiami and same process, though I don’t think they had the approval process. </p>
<p>For those uninsured, it is great that insurance is provided (even at a cost) to all students at all (?) schools. Does anyone realize how expensive surgery, tests, etc cost these days?</p>
<p>Did not know that UB and SB and other SUNY’s have different insurance fees.</p>
<p>For those with private Aetna insurance, there is a walk-in center not too far from campus that accepts the Aetna copay. Also, son in Miami needed to see an ENT (health center was not solving his problem) so I found a group online (google) called them and they took Aetna. Called sons home Dr and they gave him a referral (online approval from Aetna) and was seen the next day.</p>
<p>thanks for all the replies.</p>
<p>I filled out my waiver application and immediately received an email from Aetna. However, I did not receive another email from them indicating that my waiver was actually approved or not, is that normal?</p>
<p>Also, did anyone applied for the waiver and got approved (removed the $2,000 insurance from ebill?)</p>
<p>is it okay to tell me what health insurance you have. Since some health insurance are qualified and some are not,</p>
<p>I filled out my waiver a few days ago, haven’t heard anything yet. I recall it saying you will hear back in about 2 weeks. So I wouldn’t worry yet.</p>
<p>I anticipate it being waived without an issue, as I’ve done so for the past 2 years. But no, doesn’t appear they have approved the waivers yet, as the charge is still on my bill.</p>
<p>If I recall correctly, it usually ends up being removed shortly before classes start.</p>
<p>I have Blue Cross/Blue Shield if that means anything, although it really matters on the specific coverage.</p>
<p>No, if they sent you the verification email then you should receive a decision on the waiver within 2 weeks. My D has insurance through Fidelis which is an HMO/PPO type plan - we previously had United Healthcare and had no problem with UB but UHC actually had significantly fewer choices in Erie County. If you have Family HP or Child HP, I’m pretty sure the actual coverage is standard across all carriers…but your carrier may or may not have good coverage in Buffalo. You would probably want to choose a different carrier in that case. </p>
<p>Crazed, you’re right that no one can afford to be without insurance these days but the requirements are far from standardized across schools. Most schools do offer student insurance, but many (even many the of the SUNYs) do not require it. I believe students in NJ and MA are required by law to have insurance but not in NY. Those schools that do make coverage mandatory typically do so on a cost-effective basis - realizing that many students with home coverage may not extend to the schools’ location. I believe that UB may have had a “soft” verification process up til this year, meaning that they were willing to grant waivers based on the student providing basic insurance info and attesting to the fact that their coverage extended to Buffalo area providers. Now they seem bent on doing hard verifications and this is what Aetna is doing a poor job with. I’m quite sure that 1 business day is not enough time to get a response from most insurers since Aetna is neither a provider nor a member! Instead, they throw the burden back on the student to find someone from their insurance company to sign a statement within 2 weeks that the plan:
A. Offers at coverage of at least $100K Per Condition, Per Year;
B. Offers inpatient and outpatient coverage within 25 miles of UB’s campus (emergency only coverage does not meet this requirement)
C. Offers inpatient and outpatient mental health care within 25 miles of campus (again, emergency coverage does not meet the requirement).</p>
<p>They will not accept insurance cards, policies, or anything but this signed form as proof of insurance. Frankly, item C is a bit odd as most insurance plans I’ve had restrict mental health benefits and most students would have little need to seek such services off campus anyway.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your replies. </p>
<p>Just curious why is UB’s medical insurance so expensive. I mean its a SUNY school right why shouldn’t the medical insurance be the same?</p>
<p>Student medical insurance is a campus-based program and there is no standard set by SUNY. Schools are not required to make it mandatory and many of the SUNYs do not. Those that do have varying standards of what is acceptable coverage.</p>
<p>I know this has nothing to do with this thread but could someone please tell me how to start a thread???</p>
<p>Back up one level (if you want to start a thread on the forum) and click on the CC New Thread button! You can always click on FAQ at the top of any page to get info on using the site features.</p>
<p>On topic, I have had several conversations with Aetna, our carrier (Fidelis) and UB today. Apparently only some people were selected for verification and Aetna is CALLING insurance companies for the info. So, perhaps those who are getting waivers were not selected or already use Aetna. Our ins compay (Fidelis) will not give member-specific info over the phone…obviously! I asked Aetna to fax/mail a request to Fidelis and they refused. I did receive a reply from the UB Program director of SubBoard I and would encourage anyone else having waiver problems to do contact UB and not Aetna as I got 3 different people and was told something different each time I called.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice.</p>
<p>Just wondering did anyone apply for the waiver and got accepted/approved from Aetna?</p>
<p>Moreover, did UB remove the $2,000.00 medical insurance from ebill?</p>
<p>Yes and yes. Took about 2 days for me and it was removed the day after they approved it.</p>
<p>^ did you received an email said the waiver was approved?</p>
<p>When did they approved it?</p>
<p>And when did you fill out the wavier application? </p>
<p>thx for sharing</p>