<p>After deliberating during the weekend, it seems Wash U is the first choice in my Ss list. We still have some doubts because the school changed a lot since my oldest graduated five years ago.
To the parents and students: since we dont have a choice for the health care insurance, I would like to know how you feel about it. Do you have any complains? Does it cover what it says it covers? If there is a problem with the insurance, does the university work on it for you? (My second child had an accident when at Cornell and the university took care of everything, we didnt have to deal with our primary insurance even when Cornell didnt provide it).</p>
<p>If you are healthy and only go to the doctor once in a while, you are throwing away 700 plus the doctors’ fee, plus 20% of the SHS’s cost, and if you go to a doctor outside the SHS you pay other 350, so…if you catch a cold you are paying a thousand or more to treat it or don’t go to the doctor. If you have an accident or illness, pray and pay, that’s the way it worked with my friends.</p>
<p>One year ago, our daughter had an ER visit for an illness and was subsequently hospitalized. We never saw a bill. Everything was covered between the Wash U insurance (as the primary) and our health insurance as the secondary. We have been charged nominal fees for health service visits. These fees are cheaper than the co-pays with our insurance. </p>
<p>Has the care in the SHS been stellar? No, but it has been adequate and lesson in learning to navigate the health care system in general and to learn to advocate for oneself. I would like to add that the care my daughter received at Barnes Jewish was stellar.</p>
<p>You were so lucky! My S “decided” to have an accident the first week of school when the new policy was still “yet to be approved”, so every single bill came back with a “no coverage” from the WashU insurance and everything with at least a number followed by three zeros. They don’t cover prescriptions or gauzes and bandages (SHS changes $ 40 for a small kit), and only $100 for dental (only on accidents). The ambulance service is other issue since on weekend they use the Clayton Fire Department ambulances and they don’t report to the insurance, you have to do it.</p>
<p>I agree with mwmom; S learned how to deal with the insurance process between his appointments and being patient waiting for somebody to pick up the line after listening to many songs to have a single answer “we’ll send you the claim forms that you have to submitted to us (again and again)”.</p>
<p>You are very correct Cressmom, the insurance does not cover prescriptions, gauze or bandages. It is very helpful if your young adult is also covered under other insurance as well to at least help offset the cost of the medications. We were lucky in that way, although our daughter's secondary insurance doesn't cover much toward the cost of prescriptions out of state. </p>
<p>How very frustrating for you to have to wade through all of the insurance forms. When our daughter ended up in the ER, it was at the very start of the school year as well and before she received her insurance card/info from Wash U. That was not a problem at Barnes, they copied our daughter's Wash U ID card, and said they would contact Wash U for the updated insurance information and file the claims. We were impressed. I wonder if Barnes no longer extends that courtesy to Wash U students. </p>
<p>I am sorry to hear you have had so many problems. I sincerely hope that your son is healing well and this frustration comes to an end soon for you.</p>
<p>S is healing, still with more doctors’ visits ahead but with good mood and the worst forgotten. He is skinny as a stick but eating well (dieters envy). If it wasn’t for the miscommunication and the insurance mess, things should be easier. Even the chancellor was surprised that S was alone at the hospital and was discharged with a prescription to buy and the order to call urgently an oral surgeon when he couldn’t talk because of the stitches and swelling, but it is not the RAs fault because they didn’t know they supposed to do that since it wasn’t written in their contracts. I guess it was an unfortunate situation no one expected since usually emergencies don’t occur in the face.<br>
If anyone needs oral surgeons and dentist of all areas of expertise, at this point we can recommend some of them, very good and caring people indeed (but out of network since the Wash U insurance doesn’t covert that field). Also in network there is a wonderful facial and nose surgeon we could recommend; he is a little far from campus and out of the metrolink coverage, but a 30 minutes taxi ride would get you there.</p>