International Student Insurance Blog and News

A PPO, also known as a Preferred Provider Organization, is defined as an organization of doctors, hospital and medical care facilities that have contracted with the insurance company to all provide services at a contracted rate. Usually the rate they receive is at a reduced rate. A PPO type arrangement can be beneficial for both the insurance company and the insured. The rates are usually significantly reduced so the insured does not have to pay as much out-of-pocket as they would if they went outside of the PPO. The insurance company also receives the lower rate so in effect they do not have to pay high claims amounts. This in turn, allows your renewal and premium rates to remain as low as possible.

With most of our plans, they do offer a PPO. However, you are not required to follow it. If you do choose to go within the network or PPO, then you will receive significant benefits. For example, the Student Secure plan, offers the coinsurance (coinsurance is the percentage that you would responsible to pay after the deductible) to be waived (select level only) if you go within the PPO or to the Student Health Center. The PPO for this plan is quite vast. To search the PPO go here: www.InternationalStudentInsurance.com/network. This can greatly reduce your out-of-pocket expenses. If you went to the emergency room let’s say for a broken arm and your total eligible expenses were $2,000 (the hospital you went to was in the PPO and all of your expenses were eligible expenses). The insurance company would pay 100% of your eligible expenses (select level only) after you paid the $100 deductible (the deductible is the amount that you are required to pay before the insurance company will pay towards your expenses).

Now let’s say for the same example you chose not to go to a hospital within the PPO. You would see much higher out-of-pocket expenses. Your deductible would remain the same however, the coinsurance would not be waived and you would be responsible for 20% of your eligible expenses (for this example it would cost approximately $500 total for you). On the select level of the Student Secure plan, the insurance company would pay 80% of your eligible expenses after the deductible up to $5,000 then they would pay 100% up to the overall policy maximum. So, as you can see, it’s much better for you to go within the PPO.

The Student Secure plan is available for full-time students studying outside of their home country. Outside of the U.S. there is not a PPO. You can go to any doctor or hospital and you will be provided 100% coverage for your eligible expenses after the deductible and up to the overall policy maximum (select level only). To find further information about all of our plans please visit our site: InternationalStudentInsurance.com

Labels: health insurance, insurance, international student health insurance, network, PPO, student health insurance

Applying to become an international student and studying outside of your home country can be a daunting task at times. So, many things are going through your mind and you must remember to have certain forms properly filled out, meet deadlines, find enough money to fund your education and then travel thousands of miles to a school that you may have only visited once. If you find yourself in this predicament, you may want to visit InternationalStudent.com to help you learn more about the USA. This site has a very helpful Study USA Advice Center.

So, then your school tells you that you must have health insurance either through their provider or an alternate provider which you must find on your own means. You learn though that the alternate insurance plan must meet certain requirements. These requirements are usually extensive and can be quite confusing. At this point, you may just want to throw up your hands and pay the school’s insurance fee. However, it may well be worth the time and effort locating a new plan. In a lot of cases, the school’s insurance plan can cost you double what alternate plans may cost. So, to make your life a little bit easier, we’ve added a school insurance requirements database to our website.

This feature will allow you to look up your school by state and identify whether or not our Student Secure Health Insurance plan will meet your school’s requirements. Instead of searching for hours for an inexpensive and acceptable plan on the internet, you will now have the tool to know right away. Through our extensive research, we have identified which level of our plan meets your school’s requirements. Inevitably, this will save you time and money and the guesswork will be minimized.

Click here to view the School Insurance Requirements Database for colleges or universities in the U.S.

If you do decide to waive your school’s insurance policy, then you’ll want to check with your school and see if you need to complete a compliance form. Once you sign and complete this form, we can fax it to your school. Also, once you apply for the plan, you will receive all of your insurance documents via e-mail if you opt for online fulfillment. This e-mail will be sent to you right away and will contain your insurance card, letter of coverage, explanation of benefits and receipt.

We will be updating this list on a continuous basis. If you do not find your school on the list and still have questions in regards to your school’s requirements then please do not hesitate to contact us.

 

Labels: health insurance, insurance, international student, international student insurance, school requirements