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Joseph B. Trainer
Student Health Service
Services
SERVICES
The Health Service wants to be your “medical home” providing primary outpatient care and counseling services. The range of primary care addresses any health-related concern you may have including but not limited to women’s health, skin problems, sports or accident-related injury, headaches or other neurologic , cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, urologic problems, etc. Your primary care physician or nurse practitioner will assess with you your concerns and address them either directly or access further diagnostic services (such as imaging or laboratory) or when necessary help you access specialty services available at OHSU or in the community. While these ancillary or backup services are not provided by the Student Health Service, we can help validate the appropriateness of the referral for better coverage under your health insurance plan.
If the problems you are having have some emotional component or basis, our primary care doctors may refer you for counseling services. If you seek counseling you may request an appointment with one of our psychologists without seeing the primary care staff.
Preventive services provided by our staff include surveillance of your immunization status, including compliance with requirements for entry into your program, as well as continuing protection while here. This also includes attention to possible infectious and environmental hazards to which you might be subjected in a health care environment. We work closely with the OHSU Environmental and Radiation Safety and Infectious Disease Control committees to protect our students. Most of this work is behind-the-scenes, but there may be periodic communications with the students should the need arise.
Finally, there is a travel clinic administered by our nursing staff conveniently available for those needing to travel to parts of the world with special needs for protective immunizations, prophylactic medications, etc. There are fees for these services (unlike many of the services at the Student Health Service) which cover the consultation and any vaccines required. These arrangements should be made well in advance. In fact, travel visits sometimes require advance time for immunizations to be effective, for prophylactic medications to be started, for required forms to be filled out, so be sure to plan ahead.
COUNSELING SERVICES
Our staff members include licensed psychologists and a mental health nurse practitioner. We offer help in any area, including lifestyle concerns, problem relationhips, stress, anxiety, depression and self-worth issues, personal identity issues, sexual, or eating disorders, and problems which might be related to alcohol or drug difficulties. Our services are problem-oriented and our goal is to help you keep moving forward, feeling better and functioning more effectively. If you require services of a type or intensity not available in the Student Health Service we can help with referrals to outside mental health professionals.
HOW TO USE OUR SERVICE
Call for an appointment (503 494-8665) or come in during office hours. If you call before you come it might feel more confidential since when you walk in you may be in the waiting area with others.
URGENT PROBLEMS
Call if possible before coming in (503 494-8665). After hours and on holidays and weekends we always have a primary care staff clinician on call. The OHSU hospital operator will know how to reach the clinician on call who will call you back within an hour. If you are seriously injured or require immediate emergency care, go directly to the nearest emergency department. Coverage for emergency department care (as is true with any care outside of the Student Health Service) depends on your major medical insurance. If you do visit an emergency room, be sure to request that they send records to the Student Health Service and be sure to come to the Student Health Service for follow-up care. The Health Service does not cover emergency department visits, day surgery or hospital charges.
If you do not require immediate emergency care, always call the Health Service first. During clinic hours you will speak with a nurse who may provide advice, or help you make an appointment to see a clinician (physician or nurse practitioner) or she may arrange a same-day appointment, depending on the urgency of the problem. Any appointments to specialty clinics should be by referral from Student Health Service if you wish to keep your out of pocket costs to a minimum. Self-referrals may result in higher charges directly to you.
Your Costs for our Services and Other Services
The charge for most visits with the nurse or the doctor at the Student Health Service is completely covered by your health service fee. Exceptions are for travel clinic services, or immunizations that were required prior to entrance to your academic program at OHSU. If you are seen for problems related to a motor vehicle accident, you will need to provide the information regarding your motor vehicle insurance company so that we can bill for those services for which they are responsible.
If you have laboratory or X-ray testing services at OHSU ordered by the student health physician, your required health insurance will be billed by OHSU Hospital. If the health insurance determines that these are “screening” or lack “medical necessity” for qualifying as a covered benefit, you will be responsible for all of the cost of these tests.
The health service fee which you pay provides the budget for operations of the Student Health Service. We are not able to use this to cover the costs of services provided outside of the Student Health Service. Be sure to study your insurance handbook carefully to know what is covered and what is not, and to understand the deductible and out of pocket provisions of your insurance plan. If you have concerns about your insurance benefits or exclusions and you don’t find answers in the insurance company handbook, call the customer service respresentative of the insurance company with your question. If you still have concerns, you may call the Student Health Service and we will try to help you. If your concern involves a claim, we would want to look at the “EOB” (explanation of benefits) sent to you by the insurance company showing their action on your claim.
You should familiarize yourself with the terms of your required student health insurance, and know that each year in the Spring these benefits are reviewed and improvements made to get the best benefit at the lowest cost, considering the OHSU policy of mandatory student health insurance. (See the section of this website titled “OHSU Mandatory Student Health Insurance Plan.”)
The start date for these changes each year is the beginning of the Fall term, which for insurance purposes is the first day of the month in which your training program begins Fall quarter. (Some programs the Fall term in August, others in September.)
FOR HELP WITH INSURANCE QUESTIONS OR PROBLEMS
As stated above, if you have questions related to insurance benefits, whether the ODS approved OHSU student group plan or a waivered plan, you should start by studying the handbook of your plan provided by the insurance company. The handbook for the ODS student group plan can be found by clicking on ODS Benefit Info on this website and scrolling to the bottom. (If there is a discrepancy between the handbook and this website, the handbook will be correct. Please notify us if you find such a discrepancy, so we can be sure we are consistent.) If you have questions about whether you are currently covered, or when your coverage starts or ends, you should call the Student Health Service. We are prepared to assist you with any kind of insurance-related question, and will try to help you sort these out, but you will need the details of your health plan coverage and you will need to study the Schedule of Benefits provided by your health insurance plan. These things can take a long time to sort out, and this can be frustrating. Your physicians and the staff of the Student Health Service will try to protect you from unnecessary out of pocket costs as much as we can.
SERVICES NOT COVERED
Services not covered by the OHSU Student Health Service, and which may or may not be covered by your insurance, include screening laboratory tests, such as a lipid panel (cholesterol panel); or screening tests for sexually transmitted diseases in the absence of symptoms or signs; or multiphasic laboratory testing as part of a “routine physical.”
The examination itself by the nurse or nurse practitioner or physician in the Student Health Service is completely covered, even if it is for screening purposes. We suggest you enroll in a health fair (wellness testing, body fat, lipids, glucose, etc.) or use the services of a community screening program or the county public health department if you want screening tests at low cost.
Other items not covered by your student health fees include
Amniocentesis; Appliances (orthopedic braces, glasses, IUD’s, etc.)
Balances due after insurance payment for emergency department visits,
day surgery and inpatient care
Chorionic villi sampling
Circumcision
Specialty clinic visits.
Contact lens clinic
Dentistry
Labor and delivery including prenatal care (these are “bundled” into one global fee and charged to your insurance.
Check with your OB provider.)
Ancillary Services not provided at OHSU
Required Pre-entrance vaccines, antibody titers, skin tests and injection administration fees for these.
Hepatitis A and other travel vaccines vaccines.
Fertility tests
Military physical exams.
Services in OHSU clinics, including OHSU dental clinics
Pharmacy Services
Special procedures
Travel clinic consultation visits and immunizations
“Routine” eye exams
COVERAGE TIME PERIOD
OHSU Student Health Service coverage is effective from the “class begins” date on the OHSU academic calendar to the “class begins” date of the following term. (This is different from the health insurance coverage, which begins the first day of the month in which your “class begins” date falls.) NOTE: Some programs have a school vacation for an entire term. During this term you are not enrolled, and will need to pay both the student health fee for that term and the prorated health insurance premium to maintain these during the vacation term. If you drop the insurance for the term, there may be difficulties for you when you reenroll. Health insurance works best when you are continuously enrolled without breaks in coverage. You can call or come in to the Student Health Service and we will help you with these things, such as purchasing OHSU Health Service coverage for vacation quarters or maintaining vacation quarter insurance coverage.
REQUIRED HEALTH INSURANCE INFORMATION AND THE WAIVER
Please go to the section of this website titled, “Mandatory OHSU Student Health Insurance Plan” to learn about the health insurance program and the waiver. Some salient facts: All OHSU students must carry a major medical insurance policy. OHSU currently allows a waiver (exemption) from the OHSU student group health insurance plan, but certain very specific and limited criteria must be met, and there are other requirements, including deadlines, for waiver applications. The ODS student plan major medical insurance policy is required at OHSU for students, and available for dependents and domestic partners at the time the student starts his or her program at OHSU. There is no annual “open season” for dependents to sign up for the student insurance plan if they decline to sign up for the insurance within the first 31 days of the start of the student’s academic program. All waivers, regardless of when during the academic year they were initiated, expire at the beginning of Fall term.
(Note: All Clinical Laboratory Science and Paramedic Students from Oregon Institute of Technology, and Oregon State University students in the fourth year of the Pharm. D. program are exempted from the OHSU health insurance requirement. These students should check with their respective program administrators about their insurance options.)
As noted above, be sure you have insurance for school terms in which you are technically not enrolled such as vacation quarters and for a long enough period following graduation to acquire health insurance from another source. If you take a leave of absence from school, inquire at the Health Service about your coverage.
The ODS Student health insurance is offered through OHSU for up to one year post-graduation only if you were covered by that insurance the previous term. If you are covered under your parent’s policy, your coverage could be terminated after a certain age or after you leave school. Be sure to check the policy carefully. Some parents’ plans make available a “conversion” plan from the same company as your parents’ employer group health plan, that does not require an application and is guaranteed to cover you, that may be valuable and may qualify for a waiver from the student plan. These usually require you to sign up and start premium payments within 30 days of terminating the parents’ plan because you have reached a certain age, such as 24 years. Conversion plans or individual plans that are of lower cost but do require a medical application involving review of past medical history would not qualify for the waiver.
Finally, if you do have a waivered health insurance plan but it is terminated for any reason, you will have only 30 days to sign up for the OHSU student group plan. You are required to have health insurance as a condition of being a student at OHSU.
SPOUSES AND REGISTERED DOMESTIC PARTNERS—STUDENT HEALTH SERVICE COVERAGE
Spouses and approved domestic partners (affidavit applications and other qualifying informational requirements must be met through the Student Health Service office) may purchase privileges in the student health service by paying an additional health fee. There are only two times when spouses or domestic partners (domestic partner affidavit must be approved) may enroll for privileges in the Student Health Service: 1. Before the first day of the month in which the qualifying student’s educational program begins; or 2.) Annually there is an open enrollment for Student Health Service before the first day of the month in which fall term begins. A brand new married spouse may sign up for the Student Health Service within 30 days of the date of the wedding. A new domestic partner may enroll as of the start of the next fall term after the date of approval of the domestic partner affidavit.
The student must be covered by the major medical insurance provided through OHSU in order for spouses or domestic partners or dependents to buy the insurance benefit within 31 days of the student’s first day of class in the OHSU program. Student health services (primary care and counseling services provided directly in the Student Health Service) are not comprehensive but are the key when necessary to access the full range of the comprehensive health care system. Therefore, individuals (spouses and partners) taking advantage of the student health service program should have health insurance to cover the possibility that expensive specialty or hospital or emergency care might become necessary.
Children of students are not eligible for services in the Student Health Service. However, the OHSU-approved student group major medical health insurance provides excellent comprehensive coverage for children including well-child checkups. If you have children we suggest you review the ODS handbook describing the health insurance coverage.
VACATION QUARTER
You may purchase Student Health Service coverage, major medical health insurance, or the Health Service package (combined Student Health Service and major medical insurance) during vacation quarters when you are not registered in school. Please call or come to the Health Service to arrange to purchase this vacation quarter coverage.
GRADUATION OR COMPLETION OF PROGRAM
The Student Health Service is available to you until the day you graduate and/or the last day of class of your final term. If you are continuing at OHSU in a different academic program, you may purchase Health Service coverage until your new program begins. Call or come to the Health Service to sign up.
The OHSU student group health insurance plan is effective until the end of the month in which you complete your program. Under the terms of our contract with ODS, you are guaranteed eligibility for up to one year following graduation. Call or come to the Health Service to sign up if you wish continued coverage for this extended period.
Please contact the student health service office for additions or changes to this page.
This page was last updated on April 10, 2007
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