Health Services
Post Office Box 8043
Statesboro, Georgia 30460-8043
Telephone: (912) 478-5641
Fax: (912) 478-1893
http://services.georgiasouthern.edu/health

Dear Students & Parents,

I'd like to give you an update on some changes that are coming about at University Health Services in the very near future. We're very excited about the ability we will soon have to provide insurance billing and collection services for our students and their parents. As of January 2007, Health Services began partnering with Highland Campus Health Group to conduct third party insurance billing and collection for professional clinical services students receive at our facility. We are now in the implementation phase for this project and our present timeline calls for us to have everything in place to begin the insurance billing and collection by mid-to-late-summer. This will help alleviate some of the financial pressures faced by university students and their parents by eliminating some of their out-of-pocket expenses for reimbursable professional clinical services and ancillary services (such as laboratory tests and X-rays, prescriptions, referrals to other specialists) which are already covered by their health insurance plans. In addition, it will allow Health Services provider prescriptions and off-campus medical referrals to be recognized by parent/student health insurance. Another benefit of this partnership with Highland Campus Health Group will be Health Services ability to limit increases in the student health fee, which is used to help support the administrative costs of managing an ambulatory student health center facility, and passing those savings along to our students. We do not plan to "balance bill" the students or parents for the portion of the insurance claims not paid by the insurance, another plus for our students.

We're asking ALL students to enroll in MedBuddy-U, our web-based secure communication tool, whether or not they've actually been to our clinic; this includes insured students as well as uninsured students. That will help to expedite the process when they do come to University Health Services for medical care. So, students will be required to log onto the Health Services Web site at http://services.georgiasouthern.edu/health and click on the link to MedBuddy-U (look for the icon with the smiling stethoscope!) and enroll in MedBuddy-U. The student will need to complete the medical background information and provide current health insurance information for us. The student should present their current insurance card to the receptionist upon arrival at University Health Services, so our staff can verify the insurance information is up-to-date. All students are encouraged to carry adequate insurance coverage; however, no student will be denied access to medical care at University Health Services due to lack of insurance coverage. Uninsured students may be required to pay out-of-pocket for certain medical services not covered by the student health fee.

Please help your student to be a MedBuddy-U user to take full advantage of all University Health Services has to offer to our students, and call on us if we can be of further assistance to you.

Respectfully,

Paul Ferguson
Director of Health Services