Using Columbia University Health Insurance Plan
Columbia University’s health insurance program operates on a referral basis. You can go at any point to the on campus clinicians without a referral, but if you intend to go to a doctor or hospital outside of the Columbia campus, then you have to get a referral, either from the Primary Care Medical Services department or from Counseling and Psychological Services. If you are a full time registered student of Columbia and you have an emergency requiring you to go to the hospital, then it isn’t necessary for you to get a referral. You can get treated and then file a claim later.
In order to get a referral from PCMS or CPS, you have to go to the on campus clinicians first. Once they have attempted to treat you, or partially treated you, they can give you a referral to go outside the campus. Here are the steps that you have to follow.
- If you don’t get a referral before receiving medical treatment off the Columbia campus, then you aren’t covered. The only exception is for emergency situations.
- Getting a referral has been made easier so that you don’t need a new referral every time you see the same off campus doctor. Instead, the referrals are based on your condition. So, if you have to go see a certain off campus physician for one condition, a single referral covers all of your visits to said doctor for the same condition, with no limits unless you visit the doctor for a different reason.
- You’re still covered by the Columbia health insurance plan even when you aren’t in the city. If you are on break somewhere else and you get sick or hurt, you still have to get a referral, but you can do it over the phone.
- Copays are required most of the time for visits to off campus physicians.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
Don’t want to enroll in the Columbia health insurance plan?
Filed under: Health Insurance Quotes, Medical Health Insurance
Reader question:
I already have health insurance coverage, but my university, Columbia, automatically enrolls you in their insurance program when you register full time. How do I get out of that?
Alexis
Great question.
It can be a little annoying that your university doesn’t give you the option of enrolling or not enrolling in its Columbia health insurance program, but you have to understand that it is mostly in order to protect the interests of its own finances and those of its students. It also offers you health insurance at cheaper rates than you might receive it elsewhere. However, while it is compulsory to be insured while you are attending Columbia full time, it is not compulsory to be insured by Columbia.
If you have your own health insurance coverage, then you can get a waiver to get out of being automatically enrolled in that of your school. It’s not very hard to do. The main thing that you need is documents proving that you have other health insurance coverage. This shouldn’t be easy to get, since all you wil need is your insurance card, which you should already have on your person at all times.
The catch is that while you have to provide proof of insurance, it has to meet six criteria. To find out what these are, go to the Columbia University website. Luckily, once you have waived your coverage, you don’t have to hassle too much with it. Once you waive it for the first semester of the school year, it is automatically waived for the next one. You will, however, need to get it waived all over again for the new school year if you continue attending Columbia.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama
Florida health insurance for seniors
Reader question:
I’m seventy years old and have been living in Florida for six months. What kinds of programs does Florida have for health insurance for seniors?
Duke
SHINE.
Sorry, not trying to be unreasonably cheery. That’s actually the name of Florida’s health insurance program for seniors. SHINE. It stands for Serving Health Insurance Needs of Elders and is the state’s subsection of the program, called SHIP, or state health insurance programs, that is existent in every state and territory of the United States. SHINE does not actually provide Florida seniors with senior health insurance–that’s what Medicaid is for–but it does provide them with plenty of very useful services.
SHINE is, essentially, a way to educated senior citizens living in Florida of what their options are when it comes to medical health insurance. It helps them decide what they want to do in the long run, and helps them disentangle the confusing red tape that is wrapped around the new, improved Medicare prescription program. This free education comes in the form of one on one counseling and group efforts.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
Florida child health insurance and the parent’s immigration status
Filed under: Child Health Insurance, Temporary Health Insurance
Reader question:
If I am not a legal resident of the United States, but my child is, then can I stil apply for child health insurance for them? Would I be reported to the Immigration and Naturalization Service?
Gloria
Not at all.
The only thing that the people who run the KidCare child health insurance program in Florida are looking at whenever they are approving or denying applications for insurance coverage is the child. If the child is not a legal resident of the United States, then there will be a problem and the child will not be eligible for coverage. However, if the child has acceptable legal status but the parent does not, that does not come in to play at all.
Even if the parent who is applying for the insurance for their child does not have legal immigration status in the United States, the state of Florida will not report the parent to the Immigration and Naturalization services when the parent applies for child health insurance for their kid. A parent would only be reported to the INS if they were applying for something like cash welfare or food stamps and they are not legal or they have a deportation order out on them.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
How much does KidCare Florida health insurance cost?
Reader question:
How much does KidCare Florida health insurance cost?
Jackson
Good question.
It’s important to understand that the KidCare child health insurance program is not free, so it needs to be budgeted for low income families just like any other bill would. All the same, it does cost quite a bit less than most child health insurance plans, and so even though there will be a certain fee for the plan, it can also be understood that the parent will be saving a ton of money and most will find themselves able to afford it.
If you get the Medicaid version of KidCare, it is completely free, but this is the most difficult one to get because it has the strictest income requirements, and many people who are not eligible are still not able to afford Florida health insurance, which is where the rest of the KidCare child health insurance plans come into play.
These programs require an up front payment which is reimbursed if your kid is not accepted into the program. For the most part, the cost is very little, about fifteen or twenty dollars every month for the average Florida household. The maximum that you can pay is seventy dollars, so you can’t be charged more than that regardless of how many kids you have. Under seventy dollars, your payment falls somewhere within that range based on how many children you have and how many incomes you have in the house.
Not everything is completely covered by KidCare child health insurance. However, you won’t be paying a lot like with many medical health insurance companies. The most you will have to pay for some things are minimal co-payments and fees, which don’t add up to much.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.