28 from
December 2012 / January 2013
Health care, pg. 17
good opportunity for students to learn to handle another aspect of their rapidly approaching adult lives. In past years, health insurance offered through the university covered between 8,000 and 9,000 students, including their spouses and children. The number has yet to be finalized for this year. Given all of the services and affordable pricing UHS offers, students may still have a hard time utilizing them. For the fall semester, UHS is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Weekdays are appointment only and Saturdays are walk-in only. Therefore, if
Halal Meat
a student falls sick in a short period of time, they might struggle to be seen by UHS. Additionally, the health center’s hours are not conducive to students who may have classes, jobs or internships throughout the morning and afternoon and have more availability during evening hours. If a student does fall ill quickly, their other options are MedExpress or, in an emergency situation, the Mount Nittany Medical Center. Neither of these options is particularly useful to students residing on campus or downtown. MedExpress can be reached via the Vairo bus route, and Mount Nittany via the Red Link. While the Red Link is free to use, it stops running at 7 p.m. The Vairo bus line runs later into the evening, but has a $1.50 fee each way. This amount of travel may deter students from seeking immediate
Lunch Buffet Daily $7.95
Voted Best
Carry-Out Food *Groups & Private Parties Welcome Reservations Available * Accept all Major Credit Cards More than 20 items, including appetizers and desserts. The selection changes daily! South Indian Dishes on Weekend Lunch.
222 E. Calder Way Phone: 237-3400 www.indiapavilion.net
Lunch: 11:30 am - 2:30 pm Dinner: 5:00 pm - 10:00 pm CLOSED MONDAYS
“I think it would be useful to have some kind of different option on campus, besides just Penn State. A facility where you could use other insurances.” Emily Miller, junior treatment when necessary. Additionally, while the offered services have expanded and improved, Kline fears that students are not fully aware of the plan. UHS communicates with a small portion of parents who have signed up to receive the UHS newsletter and the health center also has access to a list serve of new parents. Other than that, the center relies on students to relay information back to their parents about updates and changes in the plan. Due to this lack of information, students may be unaware of the procedure of scheduling an appointment as well as going about filing for reimbursement from their insurance company. Considering the quantity of students living in State College and that these individuals are spending seven or eight months out of the year at Penn State for four years, many people believe that the university should provide easily accessible healthcare for their students. Emily Miller, a junior nursing major, has stopped trying to use UHS. After an unsatisfactory experience with their service and insurance reimbursement process, Miller decided to use MedExpress exclusively. “MedExpress is the fastest, they are the nicest and they accept both of my insurances,” Miller said. “I know [the UHS plan] exists, but I don’t know specifics about it. I just know there is an option for people that don’t already have health care.” Miller also stated that a brand new health care option may be necessary. “I think it would be useful to have some kind of different option on campus,
besides just Penn State,” Miller said. “A facility where you could use other insurances.” Miller described the difficulties she faced seeking reimbursement in which her insurance required a printed copy of the receipt instead of the e-mailed version provided by UHS. After making several trips to UHS and communicating with her insurance company, she still did not receive the reimbursement in full. Paula Borra, a senior criminal law justice major, had recent success seeking medical attention from UHS. Borra said that she goes to UHS first because of its convenience and simple billing process. In addition to her insurance coverage, Borra appreciates the direct billing to her Bursar account because she can cover the payment with loans. As a whole, Borra finds that UHS “has its ups and downs, but it’s mostly fine.” However, regarding the placement of the building, Borra, who lives off campus, admitted that she has trouble with parking. The Eisenhower parking deck is located nearby, but is reserved exclusively for faculty and staff permit parking during the UHS business hours, thus creating a problem for students. In addition to the lack of parking, Borra said that the facility is inadequate for the massive number of students attending the University Park campus. There are just fewer than 40,000 students at Penn State and she admitted that it might be time to think about another facility location. “The campus is too big to only have one [health center],” Borra said. “It’s convenient for people who live on campus, but not for people who don’t.” Recently, Borra used MedExpress on a Sunday when UHS was closed. She admitted that the experience made her think that the center should have emergency hours available on the weekend. While the University Health Services does its best to provide quality and affordable medical attention, some students feel that there is still room for improvement in order to make it more available and useful to students.