Premiums.
Rate changes.
National Provider Identification.
If you know what any of these terms mean then, congratulations! You’re in great shape, and don’t have to worry about waivers. However, most people aren’t as familiar with what these mean, and really those terms are just scratching the surface when it comes to waivers.
We sat down with our own, Chuck Balash, a Waiver’s heavyweight who has given some insight on waiver solutions and his expert advice on helping universities sustain their rates as well as encouraging student participation.
Imagine this, you are college student feeling at the height of your “invincibility” and believing you don’t need student health insurance coverage. Now imagine, due to unfortunate circumstances you now must undergo an unexpected surgery. What’s the first thing you do?
When a student gets to college they are either going to accept the coverage of their school’s health insurance or waive it. Over the years, this process seems to be one that not many students or their parents are knowledgeable about so we decided to simplify it so you can fully understand what you will either opt into or waive out of.
Hard, medium, or soft waiver?
Here’s something you may not have known before about waivers.
Did you know there are 3 different ways we process them?
- Real-time waiver– This is where technology and healthcare meet and work in unison. With real-time waivers, students can fill out an online form and find out in “real-time” whether they have access to or denied coverage. This is the most convenient method.
- Batch mode– This is where your school’s insurance carrier communicates electronically and confirms whether the student is approved coverage. This process usually takes 1-2 business days.
- Manual– This is where NPI comes in. NPI is short for National Provider Identification. Every school with a campus health center should have one, it’s a number that specifically identifies your school, and this is what we use to interact with your insurance carrier. We will get in contact with the carrier via web or telephone call and determine if the student has coverage.
Advantages vs Disadvantages
An advantage to not waiving is being able to control who has access to your coverage and the services that come along with it. It’s not new information that students can stay on their parent’s insurance up to the age of 26. However, there are so many more choices for the student if they choose to get their school’s health insurance coverage.
As far as cons, some of the exclusions within the plan may not be worth it depending on the person. If you ride a motorcycle to class every day, and your insurance chooses not to cover motorcycle accidents, that person may not see the value in having their school’s insurance and instead opt to waive out of coverage.
In short
AHP makes it easy to implement an excellent waiver program to deal with adverse selection issue to minimize financial impact for students. We do this by leveraging technology to offer a best in class waiver technology platform.
Our waiver technology enabled solution automates the process, reduces manual overhead and streamlines communications to the students through email and text. We also provide professionally recorded videos and student focused informational materials to navigate the students through the process. This is all because we care and like to simplify and hide complexity for you.
Let us know if we can help you by contacting [email protected].