Student Medical Plan waiver to change for spring 2016

Changes to the student health plan for the spring of 2016 mean that you will need to work a little harder to waive the $880 fee.

Previously, in order to waive the medical plan, students had to click one button on the Student Information System, saying that they had comparable insurance from a different avenue. Any student enrolled in one or more credit hours at Case Western Reserve University is required to have health insurance.

Now students will have to go to the Finance section, click a button and answer a questionnaire in order to waive the fee. The nine-question survey is designed to see whether students have adequate coverage as determined by President Barack Obama’s healthcare law. It is also to ensure that students don’t have regional-exclusive coverage that only allows them emergency coverage outside of their home state.

Students who answer no to any of the questions will be required to be on the university’s medical plan. However, according to Mary Beth Katitus, business manager for the medical plan, students can call their department to see if there is a way to make their plan work.

“The reason why we decided to make the changes was because we wanted to really broaden the student’s understanding of what the insurance from the standpoint of having adequate insurance was in a university setting,” said Katitus.