International Student and Scholar Services

Transcription

1 Fall 2017 Pre-departure Webinar Benefits Taivna Mills: Well, hello everyone and thank you so much for joining our webinar. We will - today's webinar is about benefits and health insurance and, we will have our speaker from the benefits office, and her name is Dana Stafford, and I am Taivna Mills, I work in the international students scholar services with Shuhui Lin, who goes by Lin, in our office. So we will be hosting the webinar today. There are a few things to go over. We wanted to make sure that you pay the E-ship global fee for us in ihawk, so that we can mail your documents. And once you receive your documents then you can apply for the visa. And also, this information is also in the pre-arrival checklist in ihawk. So if you have any questions, you can us. And some dates and information to go over, the orientation is mandatory. So that means you must be here for the first day of the orientation, and that is January 8 th, And we also have airport information. So when you arrive the closest airport is the eastern Iowa airport and from there, you can take taxis and shuttles to Iowa City that are available. And current international student volunteers will greet you at the airport. So look out for our volunteers at the airport. And today, our goals are - we will go over health insurance requirement for international students, and if you have any questions, you can post your questions in Q&A. Time for us - also you can also us if you missed the webinar today. Right? So, with that we will take the time over to Dana, who will go over the health insurance information. Dana Stafford: Hello everyone, and thank you for joining us. This afternoon I'm going to talk a little bit about the University of Iowa s student health insurance requirements as well as the insurance plans we offer to our students. So health insurance is mandatory for all international students and also for students studying health sciences. Medical treatment is expensive and we do not want any uninsured students burdened with debt from illness or injury while they're in attendance here at the University. So you do have two options upon your arrival here in Iowa City. The first is to submit proof of insurance if you have your own private insurance coverage that you will be keeping during your time here. Or if you do not have your own insurance, you can enroll in the University of Iowa s student health insurance plan. If you are coming to the university with other coverage and you are looking to submit that proof of coverage so you do not have to enroll in our plan, for international students there are some Mandatory requirements which your insurance coverage must include. Those are listed here on the PowerPoint, and they include hospitalization coverage. The coverage must be non-cancelable and fully paid for a minimum of at least one semester. And you must be able to renew the policy for continuous coverage, and any conditions that are covered under your initial policy must not constitute a pre-existing condition under your renewal policy. If you're a student with a J-1 Visa, there are a few additional requirements that you must meet. So your medical benefits must have at least $50,000 of coverage per accident or illness. And then a plan must also include repatriation of remains and the amount of $7,500. And what the repatriation coverage does, is if you were to pass away or die during your stay here in the United States this coverage provides transportation of your body back to your home country. The plan must also include medical evacuation coverage in the amount of $10,000. so again if you need, If you need health services, the evacuation coverage could get you back to your home country or to the nearest city or facility for that a medical service. And then the deductible on the policy must not exceed $500 per accident or illness. Another requirement when you provide proof of coverage, When you submit that proof of coverage request in MyUI, and we ll show you that here in a few minutes, you must include a copy of the policy or the coverage information and your insurance identification card at the time that you're submitting your proof of coverage. So it needs to have your name, the dates that the coverage 1

2 begins and ends, and any coverage exclusions. As I mentioned previously, we do have insurance plans offered here through the University of Iowa that you are eligible to enroll in. There's two health insurance plans. The first is what we call SHIP, the student health insurance plan, and that is available to all students. The second plan is UIGRADCare, and that is only available to graduate students and Health Science students. We also offer dental insurance. Insurance coverage begins the first of the month that classes start. So if you're traveling here in January coverage would begin January 1st, and premiums are charged directly to your university bill and they are charged monthly. So we'll talk a little bit more about each of the insurance plans. The first is the SHIP plan which is available to both undergrad and graduate students. If you are in international or a health science student and you do not provide proof of other insurance coverage, then you will be automatically enrolled in this SHIP plan. It is a very comprehensive plan that provides worldwide coverage through blue cross blue shield providers. So if you were to travel internationally while you have this SHIP coverage, there are providers who are part of this network that you could visit during your travels. Some of the services that are covered under SHIP include visits to your physician. And this does include chiropractic care. If you just need your routine annual physical, immunizations, if you have a hospitalization. Inpatient outpatient surgeries are covered as well as imaging and any laboratory tests. It does have mental health coverage. Also covers prescription drugs, and then as we talked about before the repatriation and medical evacuation coverage is part of this SHIP plan. With SHIP there is an out of pocket maximum to be aware of which is $1,700 for a single plan for $3,400 for the family. What the out of pocket maximum is, is the most money that you would pay each year for covered medical services. There's a separate prescription out of pocket maximum which is $1,000 single and $2,000 for the family. But there's no lifetime maximum on the policy. So there is no limitation on the dollar amount of services you can receive. The current single plan cost for SHIP is $190 per month. Some services that are not included under SHIP, you could not get a vision examination or a hearing exam. It does not cover the purchase of eyeglasses or hearing aids. And there is no dental coverage, unless it was an accident. For example, you knock your tooth out in a car accident. Also travel vaccinations are not covered. With UIGRADcare again, this plan is available to health science students as well as graduate students. Something to be aware of with this plan is there is a limited provider network. So when you're here on campus you can visit student health and wellness or any of the University of Iowa hospitals and clinics, and they have some community medical services clinics that you can also seek treatment at. If you are married or have any children that will be traveling with you, your dependents cannot visit student health and wellness but they can receive care through the University of Iowa hospitals and clinics. And again, a brief overview of services covered under GRADcare. So office visits to your physician, your routine physicals, immunizations, hospitalization, the inpatient and outpatient surgery, imaging and laboratory tests. One thing to notice that routine vision and hearing exams are covered under UIGRADcare, which is different from SHIP. And then also covers mental health visits, your prescription drugs, and then the repatriation and medical evacuation coverage as well. Out of pocket maximums under UIGRADcare are a bit lower than SHIP. So $1,000 single, $1,700 for the family. And on the prescription side, $1,000 single, and $1,700 for family. Again, there's no time excuse me, there's no lifetime maximum on the policy and single coverage is currently $295 per month. A few items which are excluded from UIGRADcare coverage, again purchased of eye glasses and hearing aids, and then the dental care unless it's an accident. You do have the option of also purchasing student dental insurance. And again, this is not required. The plan is administered by delta dental of Iowa, and you can visit any provider, but there is a cost advantage to you for using participating providers. There is a three-tier provider network with tier 2

3 one being the PPO network, and that would include the University of Iowa s college of dentistry. There's also a number of other dentists in the Iowa City area who belong to that PPO network. Tier two is the premier network, and then tier three is the non-participating dental providers. So those dentists who do not accept our delta dental insurance. I'm looking at the slide here, something to be aware of with this plan, some of the service is provided under dental insurance require you to pay a deductible. And what that means is this deductible amount is just a dollar amount that you pay before the insurance plan pays for coverage services. So, for example, under the PPO, if you go to the University of Iowa s College of dentistry, there's a $15 single deductible. We'll talk a little bit more about those services here. So, the annual maximum is $1,000 per person per year. So under this plan, each person who is covered gets $1,000 of dental coverage every year. For your checkups and teeth cleanings, those visits are free. So no deductible or co-insurance is owed. For a cavity repair or a tooth extraction, you would pay your deductible. So, for example, if you're going to the college of dentistry, there's that $15 single deductible, so you pay the $15 plus a 10 or 20 percent coinsurance. And the co-insurance is just your share of the costs of a covered service. And it s a percentage basically of the allowed billing amount for that service. So if the cavity costs $100, you would pay the $15 deductible plus 10 percent of $100 or $10. For root canals or gum and bone disease treatment, again, if you haven't already you would pay that deductible plus 20 percent co-insurance. And then with high cost restorations, crowns, dentures, bridges, you would pay the deductible if you hadn't already, plus 50 percent co-insurance. If you are an employed graduate student during your time at the University of Iowa, and your assistantship is 25% time or greater, or your fellowship is per year or greater, which could also be $5,000 or greater per semester, then you're eligible for a university contribution towards the cost of your health insurance. So you can see the reduced rates. For SHIP, you would only pay $19 a month for a single plan. Grad care would be $29.50 a month for a single plan, and a single dental plan would only be $3.75 a month. This is not an automatic contribution. So you still must enroll in insurance through MyUI and then indicate on your enrollment that you have an assistantship or a fellowship. So talking more about that contribution, the Universities contribution toward your insurance would start the first day of the month following your first day of work, as long as you've submitted your enrollment in MyUI. So, for example, if you're coming on to the University in January, you'd be required to have insurance which would start January 1, because that's the month that classes start. However, if you do not begin your employment as a graduate assistant until January 20th, the contribution towards your insurance from the university would begin February 1st. If you are an employed graduate student with insurance, the premiums are deducted from your university paycheck, instead of being billed to your UBill. For employed graduate students who graduate in May, they have a final deduction for their insurance from their paycheck in May and the coverage ends May 31st. For a student who has an academic appointment and is not graduating, they have summer insurance coverage. And that premium is deducted from their June paycheck. So that covers June July and August insurance. So here's what you will see once you log into MyUI using your hawk ID and password. You come to this screen and at the top are a few tabs that you can select. You ll want to select student information. And it will redirect you to another page with a few different sections. Under the student life management section, you'll find student insurance at the bottom of the list and click on student insurance. And you'll see the following options. So here is where you can enroll in health insurance or submit proof of other coverage. If during the year you have a life event and you need to add a dependent or remove a dependent from your insurance, you can do that by clicking the life event button. And then there's also 3

4 a cancellation button. So say you are going to travel back to your home country for the summer and you do not need University insurance. You can click on the cancel student insurance button and then we ask that you submit a copy of your plane ticket or Itinerary, or if you're employed a letter from your department stating the dates you will leave the United States and then when you will return, and you'll be able to cancel your insurance for June and July. Once you've submitted your request in MyUI it comes to the benefits office where we will review and process your request. If you do choose to enroll in our health insurance, Insurance cards will be mailed to the residing address that s on file for you in MyUI. So once you arrive in Iowa City or the Iowa City area, we would ask that you go into MyUI and update your residing address. And then this card you see here on this screen is an example of what the insurance card will look when you visit the physician or the hospital or if you're going to fill a prescription at a pharmacy you'll need to present this card. If you need another set of cards, perhaps you lose your set or maybe your name or date of birth is wrong, then you need to contact our office for assistance. During the semester if you want to make changes to your insurance, you can only do so during our open enrollment periods. And that's when you can cancel your insurance if you have other insurance. You can add dependents. Any of those changes can be made during open enrollment. Open enrollment begins January 1st in ends February 9th. And then there's another enrollment period May 1st to June 9th and August 1st to September 9th. If it's outside of open enrollment and you need to make an insurance change you can do so with a qualifying life event. So, for example, you get married, you get divorced, you have a baby. Perhaps a spouse arrives in the US to join you and you want to add them to insurance. Maybe you lose other insurance coverage or you gain other insurance coverage. Those are qualifying life events. The changes to insurance take affect the first of the month following the event except for with a birth or adoption, then the coverage is retroactive to the first of the month in which the baby is born or adopted. If you do have questions regarding student insurance whether it's after our webinar today or upon your arrival here at the University, we have a team of employees in our office who work with student insurance. Feel free to us at benefits-students@uiowa.edu. Also listed our office telephone number and the toll free number. And I would also encourage you to visit our website as we have links to our student insurance information, the mandatory insurance requirements, and what would be considered an exemption for other coverage. Shuhui Lin: So before we go into question and answer, I just want to mention a few other things. So if you do have any questions about the pre-arrival checklist or any other issues before arrival, please contact isss-orientation@uiowa.edu. We will be sending out a survey after the last webinar on December 1st. Please take some time to fill out that survey and that will really help us to improve the webinar series for incoming students. And just a reminder, we have one more webinar left on December 1st. Friday December 1st is on academic expectation at the same time and we also want to let you know that the first three webinar recordings are on our website already. So if you miss our webinars you can go back to our website to watch them. And this one will be posting soon once we have add the caption to the recording. 4

5 Questions & Answer Taivna Mills: All right. Well, thank you Dana and Linn. We've got a few questions. The first one. Someone asked do I have to sign up for dental insurance right away? Can I wait and decide later? Dana Stafford: Yes, dental insurance is optional. So you do not have to enroll immediately. You could make that request at any time and then your coverage would be affective the first of the following month. Taivna Mills: Can you explain about the payment deductible and co-insurance? When do you pay those? Dana Stafford: sure. So, for example, with the dental insurance, there were certain services that require the payment of the deductible before the insurance plan would cover those services. So with a cavity filling you would pay the $15 deductible, and then a 10 percent co-insurance was which is just a percentage of the amount that the dentist is charging to fill that cavity. Taivna Mills: Next question is can I sign up for the University of Iowa health insurance right now? Dana Stafford: Well, if you have a profile and myui, then yes, you could go in and get enrolled and you would just want to make sure you choose January 1st of 2018 as your start date for your insurance policy. Taivna Mills: Last question. Do I need an insurance card to use my health insurance? Dana Stafford: Yes, you do need your insurance card to use your health insurance. If you would not receive your card or if you would lose it, our office can assist you in giving another copy. Once you visit a provider they usually make a copy of your card and have that information on file for future visits. But, yes, it is important to have that copy of your insurance card. Taivna Mills: That's all the questions posted so far, but if you have any questions, Please us or the benefits office. And hopefully we will see you at the next webinar. Thank you for participating. 5