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Student health insurance goes up for bid
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Through a campus survey e-mailed to everyone registered with the Student Health Insurance Plan, students will get a chance to influence the program’s coverage.
Boise State is at the end of its current contract with United Healthcare – the university’s health insurance provider.
Ferdinand Schlapper, executive director of Health, Wellness
and Counseling Services on
campus sees the present as a good time to change services.
“We’re at the end of those [contract] extensions. We can’t do it forever, so now we have to go out and bid this,” Schlapper said.
In conjunction with ASBSU, the Health, Wellness and Counseling Services wants to know what students would like to see change in regard to the health care plan.
According to Schlapper, it is the students’ plan and they should have a say in it.
In the next few weeks, students enrolled in SHIP should expect to see a survey in their e-mail account asking what they would like to change about their insurance plan. Schlapper is looking at different companies and seeing which offers the best package. He would like to keep premiums low, but provide comprehensive service.
“Those two elements are on the opposite ends of the spectrum. Is it more important to have certain benefits, or keep it very minimal and low cost?” Schlapper said.
Schlapper and the Health, Wellness and Counseling Services want to know what students think about vision, dental, premiums and co-pay. How willing are you to pay extra for more services?
Pat Branson is the Student Health Insurance Plan manager. From time to time she gives a presentation on campus about SHIP.
“A lot of students on campus are just uninformed about what is available to them, and then if they do take the insurance what exactly they have available,” Branson said.
The Health, Wellness and Counseling Services, located on the south side of University Drive across from the Administration Building, has an entire wall dedicated to SHIP. Cards, pamphlets and brochures present a multitude of data. The problem lies in interpreting the information.
The Student Health Insurance Plan is mandatory and costs students $496 per semester.
If a student can present adequate health insurance from another source, they have the option to waive SHIP.
Paying $496 for SHIP, students receive a maximum benefit of $100,000 per semester. Benefits refer to the most amount of money United Healthcare will pay on a claim.
SHIP offers the option for catastrophic coverage, which raises the maximum benefit to $500,000 for a year and costs an extra $200. Students over 25 must pay an extra $400 for catastrophic coverage.
Another point both Schlapper and Branson want students to be very clear on is the difference between the Health, Wellness and Counseling Services, a health care provider in the network and a health care provider out of the network.
Visits to Health, Wellness and Counseling Services on campus don’t require a deductible. The deductible is the portion of your benefit that you must satisfy before your insurance kicks in.
Visits to an in-network provider off campus, also covered by United Healthcare, have a deductible of $250. Providers out of the network, not covered by United Healthcare have a deductible of $500.
Prescriptions do not affect the deductible. SHIP offers a $10 co-pay for generic prescriptions and a $20 co-pay for non-generic prescriptions.
This means any prescription will cost a student either $10 or $20 out- of-pocket. SHIP covers prescriptions up to $400. SHIP does not cover vision or dental.
Branson would like to make sure the first thing students tell a healthcare provider is who they are covered by.
Katie Giffis and Terry Hurless are Boise State students. Giffis is an athlete (gymnastics) and registered with SHIP, Hurless is not.
Griffis thinks the biggest insurance issue facing students is that they do not understand SHIP.
“How many students do you know that would go out of their way to find out about health insurance?” Griffis said.
Being an athlete, she is aware of the greater risk of potential injuries and sees the importance of having insurance. Griffis would like vision and dental covered by SHIP and is willing to pay a higher premium for the extended coverage.
Hurless, although not registered with SHIP, would like the mandatory policy dropped.
“Unless you have a significant injury or illness it’s pretty stupid for insurance to be mandatory,” Hurless said.
According to Taylor Newbold, ASBSU secretary of public relations, the survey is still being reviewed by institutional assessment to assure it will get the desired information, but it should be sent out within the next two weeks.
BARRY FRANKLIN