<p>Has anyone else gone thru the waiver process? Students are required to certify that their current health insurance coverage meets certain requirements, or else they are forced to buy a very expensive Rice student health insurance policy.</p>
<p>I called our insurance agent and he said that requirement is nonsense. He said NO family health plans include that type of coverage. Anyone else run into this problem?</p>
<p>I totally agree. However I called the “help” number provided on the “Health Insurance or Waiver Application” website and was told that Rice has elected to require this coverage for all students.</p>
<p>$2,062 per year which is more than what it costs us to insure our son on our family plan. Also, the Rice plan has a higher out-of-pocket deductible than our current plan (and a much lower maximum benefit). Additionally there is the possibility that we will be unable to add our son to our current policy at the end of the school year if we remove him now.</p>
<p>Rice’s student health insurance costs $2062 for a single student for one year. It is very expensive for what you get. In particular, note that many services, including doctor visits are only covered at 75%. Under my private insurance plan, doctor visits are covered at 90% after meeting the deductible (and my private insurance is much less expensive - we pay around $800 per year to cover my daughter, versus the $2062 it would cost using Rice’s plan). I’m starting to wonder who at Rice benefits by giving Aetna so much lucrative business.</p>
<p>The problem I am having is that my daughter’s request for a health insurance waiver has been denied. We don’t know why - it was simply denied. I have been attempting to call and email the student health insurance office daily, and no one is responding. I have emailed copies of our insurance card, our policy, etc. to no avail. I am at the end of my rope on this. If anyone has any advice on how to contact the person in charge of deciding insurance waivers and/or how to get someone to actually look at the data and make a fair assessment of whether or not my daughter is entitled to a waiver, I would appreciate any advice you can give. This is incredibly frustrating!</p>
<p>KeirasMom, you can call the business office – the people who handle your tuition bill. Tell them your story and they will transfer you to someone who will “push through” a waiver. I had a long conversation with Rice last week. Basically all of this has to do with the Affordable Care Act which will kick in with different requirements in 2014. None of this is truly required at this point (in our case, a lower deductible than the one we currently have on our High Deductible Health Plan), but I was told by Rice that they want to “get the conversation started.” </p>
<p>I will PM you the name of the person I spoke to along with her email address. She actually works in benefits, but was able to help me.</p>
<p>I sent two e-mails to student health and left one voice mail message with no replies from either, so I went ahead and submitted the waiver request. It was immediately declined because of the lack of evacuation/repatriation coverage but my son received a waiver confirmation the next day. Give that process a shot.</p>
<p>I spoke to someone in Benefits (as suggested above by JustTryHarder). A few minutes ago, my daughter received a waiver confirmation. It sounds like more parents are starting to call, as the Benefits person I talked to knew exactly why I was calling and took care of everything in a few minutes. Maybe the flood gates have opened and waivers will start being processed now? For what it’s worth, the only problem with our initial waiver request is that my insurance company would not discuss my policy when someone from Rice called to verify it. That’s to be expected - I wouldn’t want my insurer discussing my policy with anyone who called. But it’s resolved now and hopefully won’t be an issue again (at least not until next August). Thanks to everyone for your advice (and for letting me spout off a little).</p>
<p>We all have to thank Obamacare for these new requirements. I’m sure that Rice did their best to find an affordable option under the circumstances.</p>
<p>I’m not sure I agree that the Rice plan is affordable. $2062 for a young, healthy, single, college-age kid sounds pretty pricy to me. Especially when it only covers 75% after meeting the deductible. My private insurance meets all the requirements of the Affordable Care Act (at least so far) and I can insure my kids for much, much less than $2000 each per year. Granted, I have a higher deductible. But $2062 is still pretty steep. It would be nice if there were two or three competing student plans, so that one chosen insurance company didn’t have a monopoly on the student population. Then maybe the price wouldn’t be so high. Just my two cents - there may be factors that I’m not aware of.</p>
<p>Under Obamacare, the university must require its students to have the coverages discussed in this thread? I guess that is possible, but I am skeptical, especially since some of the people in this thread got the waiver. Can you cite your source?</p>
<p>The waivers were received because we have the appropriate coverage. Rice required health insurance last year as well and we were billed for it and then submitted a waiver. There is essentially nothing new this year other than it costs a couple hundred more and it is outlined more clearly what coverage is required with private insurance. </p>
<p>SoCalDad - no specific source, just generally “common” knowledge of the general requirements of Obamacare.</p>
<p>Actually, there is one big difference this year versus previous years. Someone from Rice actually called my insurance company to verify that I have insurance. My insurance company refused to discuss my private insurance with Rice, and so my daughter’s waiver was denied. I had to make several phone calls to appeal this denial before the waiver was pushed through. This is definitely a change from the past. Not saying whether it’s good or bad, but it is an extra hurdle to go through.</p>
<p>I hope that Rice will figure out a way to improve the process for next year. Parents have been very frustrated with the waivers this year, as attested to by the number of posts to this thread.</p>
<p>(1) Don’t state that items such as medical evacuation and medical repatriation coverage are required for everyone, when those coverages are apparently only required for international students. This just adds to the confusion.
(2) Streamline the process. I had to make several calls and leave several messages before getting my son’s waiver processed. Other parents have reported similar experiences. This shouldn’t be so much work.
(3) Provide a policy that is a better value for students. The Aetna student policy is much more expensive than a private policy with similar coverage. They are simply charging too much for the coverage provided. </p>
<p>One way Rice can improve the process next year is to give parents more time to apply and process waivers. The Rice Student Health web page originally said that the waiver link would open “late June/early July”. This was subsequently changed to “mid-July” and finally “late July”. The end result was a very narrow window to process waivers before the August 1st tuition bill deadline (which, of course, was not extended!). Next year they really should try to meet the late June timeframe. That would give everyone more time to work through the wrinkles in the process and, hopefully, experience less stress.</p>