2008 Woodie Awards
Insurance Switch
Improvements Seen In Rutgers Student Insurance After Changing to Aetna
Aleksandra Nadolski, Observer Contributor
Issue date: 11/4/08 Section: News
Luz Costa, found herself facing thousands of dollars in medical bills after she was admitted to Saint Michaels in 2006.
Costa, a junior at Rutgers-Newark, who was told she would be covered by student insurance, explained how she had to pay 400 dollars in doctors' fees for just one visit. "I couldn't afford some of the other ones," she elaborates on the damage of the unpaid bills. "Some were sent to a collection agency and went against my credit."
The student insurance in question was called Mega Life and Health Insurance Company. Students like Costa, who relied on services outside Rutgers Health Center, were left with unpaid bills or a partial balance.
Costa explains, "I called the Student Insurance in New Brunswick and they said I had to put in a claims form at the R-N clerk, so I went there and filled out all the paper work and I faxed it to them. At the end they covered some of the hospital bills but they refused to cover the doctors' fees and a percentage of the overall hospital fees."
Rutgers University has since changed its medical coverage to The Chickering Group of Aetna insurance, which came into effect in September 2007. Betty Peters, coordinator of Student Insurance at Rutgers University, explains partial reasons for the switch were the difficulty with the claims system at Mega Life. "Mega Life used Beeach Street network and when they paid a fee, it was a negotiated fee. The provider wouldn't necessarily accept it as payment in full, where with Aetna they do," explains Peters of the process.
The new plan with Aetna was also more cost efficient for students. James Reeling, director of Risk Management and Insurance at Rutgers University, elaborates on the new contract. "The approximate cost of the basic plan is," he says, "if you take 38,000 students and multiply that by the cost of insurance per student, the approximate premium for full time students is just under 3.3 million dollars."
Reeling says that in comparison to the contract with Mega Life, Aetna is around $700,000 cheaper for the University.
Costa, a junior at Rutgers-Newark, who was told she would be covered by student insurance, explained how she had to pay 400 dollars in doctors' fees for just one visit. "I couldn't afford some of the other ones," she elaborates on the damage of the unpaid bills. "Some were sent to a collection agency and went against my credit."
The student insurance in question was called Mega Life and Health Insurance Company. Students like Costa, who relied on services outside Rutgers Health Center, were left with unpaid bills or a partial balance.
Costa explains, "I called the Student Insurance in New Brunswick and they said I had to put in a claims form at the R-N clerk, so I went there and filled out all the paper work and I faxed it to them. At the end they covered some of the hospital bills but they refused to cover the doctors' fees and a percentage of the overall hospital fees."
Rutgers University has since changed its medical coverage to The Chickering Group of Aetna insurance, which came into effect in September 2007. Betty Peters, coordinator of Student Insurance at Rutgers University, explains partial reasons for the switch were the difficulty with the claims system at Mega Life. "Mega Life used Beeach Street network and when they paid a fee, it was a negotiated fee. The provider wouldn't necessarily accept it as payment in full, where with Aetna they do," explains Peters of the process.
The new plan with Aetna was also more cost efficient for students. James Reeling, director of Risk Management and Insurance at Rutgers University, elaborates on the new contract. "The approximate cost of the basic plan is," he says, "if you take 38,000 students and multiply that by the cost of insurance per student, the approximate premium for full time students is just under 3.3 million dollars."
Reeling says that in comparison to the contract with Mega Life, Aetna is around $700,000 cheaper for the University.
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