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Dear EKU Students and Parents,
As the Director of Student Health Services at Eastern Kentucky University,
and on behalf of my entire staff, I would like to extend a warm welcome
to each of you. Our mission is to provide ambulatory medical services
to sick or injured students and to also provide patient education. We
feel it is important that students leave Student Health Services not only
feeling better, but better informed.
All students at EKU may utilize Student Health Services, which is supported
by a portion of the tuition costs. While we strive to meet the majority
of general health care needs, our services are limited. For a full list
of the services we provide, please visit our web site at www.healthservices.eku.edu or send us an e-mail at studenthealthservices@eku.edu .
We must bill students for some specialized lab tests and immunizations.
Also, students needing x-rays, certain blood tests, emergency room visits,
hospitalization or referral to a specialist will incur charges billed
directly by the provider. For these reasons, it is essential to consider
student health insurance coverage. While some students are covered under
their parents’ health insurance, many others may need to purchase
a health insurance plan for themselves. Eastern Kentucky University
does not endorse a specific student health insurance plan.
How to Evaluate Health Insurance Companies is information obtained from
the web site, http://www.healthinsuranceindepth.com, and is included as an attachment
to this letter. I think you will find the information in this document
helpful as you make decisions regarding purchase of a student health insurance
plan. Health insurance coverage can provide needed financial assistance
in case of a major illness or injury. Please consider all options available
to you, and help ensure that you will be able to meet your needs while
a student at EKU.
There are numerous internet web sites that offer student health insurance
plans. You may wish to begin your search for student health plans at www.healthinsuranceindepth.com, www.studentshealthinsurance.com, www.ehealthinsurance.com, www.studentresources.com, or www.acsa.com . In addition, you may want to contact an insurance
broker in your area or in the Richmond, Kentucky area. EKU does not endorse
or recommend any specific insurance company or broker.
If you have other questions about student health insurance or the services
offered by EKU’s Student Health Services, please feel free to contact
us via e-mail at studenthealthservice@eku.edu or by calling us at (859)
622-1761.
Sincerely,
Pradeep Bose, M.D.
Director
Student Health Services
How to Evaluate Health Insurance Companies
Education is a big immediate expense for many families and individuals.
But good health care coverage is still essential!
Why student health insurance is so important
College students, particularly those over 18, may not be covered by their
parents’ insurance policy once they leave home. Happily, the cost
of student health insurance is very reasonable. A college student away
from home and without health insurance can easily spend more money on health
care for a bout of influenza or other illness, or for a broken leg than
the annual cost of a student health insurance policy itself.
How to Evaluate Health Insurance Companies
Finding a health policy that meets your cost and coverage needs is a
difficult task. But the work doesn't stop there. To ensure the best care,
it's wise to evaluate both the company and its affiliate health care network.
There are at least three distinct areas that you'll want to investigate
when researching health insurance companies:
• the insurer's financial rating
• the quality of health care it provides
• its overall customer-satisfaction rating
Lets take a quick look at each of them, one by one:
A company's financial ratings
One crucial measure of any health insurance company is its financial reputation.
This is easy to research using free resources like Moody's, A.M. Best and
Weiss, all of which publish health insurance company ratings and information.
You can obtain health insurance company ratings up front, before you apply, by going to www.eHealthInsurance.com, a large on line health insurance marketplace.
Quality of care under a particular policy
What could be more important? Under an indemnity insurance plan, you select
your doctor, so if you are not satisfied with the quality of health care
you are receiving, it is easy to switch physicians.
Under a managed care health policy, however, the network of doctors you'll
be working with is pre-selected. Trusting the physicians and feeling confident
about the care you're receiving is invaluable.
Check the employment and educational histories of the network's
doctors. The American Medical Association provides information
about any physician. The Directory of Medical Specialists, which can be
found at your local library, lists information about doctors too. Use
these free resources to your advantage. (Keep reading to learn about other
sources of info.)
Customer satisfaction
How quickly health insurance companies respond to patients' requests
and questions is important.
You'll be in contact with your insurer often enough, so good communication
can make a huge difference.
Although this is a hard area to gauge before you actually purchase a
policy, you can still get a sense by calling the health insurance company's
customer service representative with a question.
Does it take them long to answer your question? Are you put on hold?
If you request information to be sent to you, how long does it take?
You can also try to "test" commitment to satisfaction. Ask
a health insurance company representative if you can switch primary care
physicians mid policy year? If not, they may be inflexible about other
personal concerns and indifferent about your health care needs.
Unfortunately, while financial information about a health insurance company
is fairly easy to come by, specific measures of patient satisfaction with
a particular health policy are not. You'll probably have to pay for this
information.
Consumer Check or Consumer Reports both offer heath insurance company
and health policy evaluations for a fee. We recommend applying for a couple
of health plans, seeing what fits your budget (and your care needs), then
checking them against each other using a paid service.
You can also do your own research into which companies and plans are
better for you, by using the questions we provide in our guide to the
various types of health plans. This will take some work, but it will help
you learn first-hand how health insurance companies differ.
10 Essential Ingredients of a Good Plan
1. Good ratings
This is especially important if you are purchasing your policy from a
new and unfamiliar company, but it's still always wise to check out any
provider's health insurance ratings to make sure you are dealing with
a valid and trustworthy business.
Remember, before insurers agree to insure anyone, they investigate the applicant and the applicant's background. You should
put them to the same test. Look for insurer and health insurance ratings
through A.M. Best, Moody's, or Wiess rating agencies.
2. The Lifetime Payout
In the event of a catastrophic illness, your policy needs to provide a
sufficient amount of health care coverage. However, to protect itself
from ever having to pay too much, your insurer limits the lifetime payout.
Therefore, lifetime payout is the maximum amount of reimbursement the
health insurance company provides during your lifetime. $1 million is
a good figure. Anything less and you run the risk of prematurely depleting
the entire reserve for health care costs available to you, while
aiming for a higher limit might make finding an inexpensive health insurance
plan too difficult.
3. Largest deductible and co-payment you can afford
Setting a high deductible and high co-payment will lower your premium
payments significantly. Although out-of-pocket medical costs will be higher,
(and don't agree to a policy that puts these figures out-of-reach) this
rule is key to bagging those inexpensive health insurance plans that are
out there.
4. Reasonable out-of-pocket limit
This policy provision limits your out-of-pocket payments per year. It
is especially important in the event of a serious illness, and we recommend
that you consider only policies that carry one. However, it's wise to
consider that setting a low maximum will increase the amount you pay in
premiums. Try to establish a reasonable out-of-pocket maximum to balance
risk with cost.
5. Waiver of premium provision
A waiver of premium provision allows you to skip premium payments during
lengthy illness. Although not absolutely necessary, the provision is beneficial
should an illness prevent you from working for an extended period of time.
(And it isn't extremely important if you are reasonably certain that you'll
be able to make the premium payments somehow, although you should never
count on this.)
6. Renewable provision
The renewable provision is a must. It guarantees that your health insurance
policy will be available for you to renew, even if you have been ill. You may be required
to continue paying your premiums while ill (unless the health insurance
includes the waiver of premium provision too), but you won't lose your
coverage.
7. Timely coverage of pre-existing conditions
Often insurers require a waiting period before covering the health care
costs for pre-existing health problems. Although it is standard for them
to assign a waiting period, it should never be over a year. After picking
through all the health insurance plans that satisfy your other requirements,
check to see that the waiting period is between three months and a year.
8. Emergency coverage
Your policy must cover emergency medical services. In the past, some managed
care plans were criticized because they required the primary care physician
to approve emergency health care. This tactic may save money, but emergency
care shouldn't be jeopardized. Read through your health insurance plan
paying special attention to the definition of emergency, and verify with
the health insurance company what is exactly covered. If you have access
to health insurance ratings, take note of this factor.
9. Few prerequisites
Prerequisites are requirements you must first fulfill before receiving
medical attention. Health insurance plans with too many prerequisites
are too restrictive. A policy with a few prerequisites is fine - it's
how the company survives (and how you get a low cost health insurance
policy), but good health care should never be sacrificed. Deciding on
what is too many is a bit subjective, but if it seems to you that the
policy requires you to jump through too many hoops, then you may want
to look elsewhere (or simply at a slightly different policy from the same
insurer).
10. Use online resources to find the best health insurance plans
The internet is a great source for health insurance ratings, learning
centers, and comparisons, but it's a great place to shop too. You won't
feel pressured into buying a "hard sell" policy, and you can
take your time and really comparison shop for the best reasonably priced health
insurance policy.
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