Beginning Fall 2024, Ithaca College’s Hammond Health Center will add a new health insurance navigator position to help students understand their health insurance and what it covers. This new role is being added to the center to ensure that trouble understanding insurance is not something that prevents students from receiving the care they need. 

For many students, college is their first experience dealing directly with health insurance and other aspects of adulthood. Students have expressed confusion and concern over health insurance at the center. The navigator will give students personal help with their insurance to help combat any confusion students may have. There will only be one navigator to start, but if the position is well received, there might be more added. 

Bonnie Prunty, vice president of Student Life and Campus Affairs, said she brought the idea of this position to the college after being inspired by Bucknell University. When Hammond Health Center partnered with Cayuga Health Systems, Ithaca College started to do outreach to learn from other schools’ health centers. Prunty said she was intrigued by Bucknell’s health insurance navigator and thought it would be a good idea to have someone to help students understand the complicated health insurance system in the U.S. 

“I’m really hoping what we find is [the new position] just helps with access to the health center, so we don’t hear about a student who maybe didn’t seek the service that they needed at that health center because they were worried about what their bill was going to look like or whether their bill was going to be covered by their insurance or not,” Prunty said. “My real goal is about access and not wanting there to be a barrier for students.”

Before students even start college, the navigator will help students and families decide whether to choose their own insurance or the school’s Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP). Then, when the student gets to college, the navigator can guide students through what their plan covers and how much visits will cost. After a visit, if a student receives an overwhelming bill, the navigator can show them the best route to payment. 

Prunty said the position has been in the works since the partnership with Cayuga Health Systems first happened in 2022. In order to make the position possible, there needed to be some staffing changes to then have salary dollars to move around to create a new role. The operations manager position was cut and the director of Student Health Services, nurse manager and office coordinator have taken on its responsibilities. 

The interview process has already started and the application is still open. Grace Webster, office coordinator for Hammond Health Center, said they interviewed one candidate already and have one more lined up. The center hopes to have someone hired as soon as possible. 

“I’m excited about the candidate pool that we have right now and we still have more interviews lined up,” Webster said. “And then from there, we can hopefully get somebody that can help out the whole student body, especially with the new students coming in.”

The center is run by Cayuga Health Systems. Jennifer Metzgar, director of Student Health Services, said the shift to working with Cayuga Medical was a necessary change but has complicated things for students.

“We just started billing for health insurance in August 2022, so prior to that, the college fully funded all the visits in the health center, but that model just wasn’t sustainable,” Metzgar said. “So we partnered with Cayuga Medical, but what we’ve learned is that a lot of students and families have questions about insurance.”

International students have expressed concerns over the affordability of insurance in 2022 after ISO Student Health Insurance was denied, which was what many international students relied on. In 2023, ISO Student Health Insurance created a plan to meet the college’s requirements. Junior Jaqueline Pereira said many international students tend to avoid the health center. 

“Every student has a different situation, but specifically for me, I avoid going to the health center just because I don’t understand how things work and then I feel scared of going,” Pereira said.

Pereira said she hopes this new person will understand international students and have empathy and patience toward all students. 

“I feel like it would be a good resource to have someone that can help us understand and can help us feel less scared to go to the doctor,” Pereira said. “That should not be something that should be scary.”

The leadership at Cayuga Health Systems and Hammond Health Center agreed that this position would be a good addition to the center. Metzgar said she supported this position because she has seen students struggle with understanding insurance.

“I’m aware of students that have come into the health center and they don’t know what their insurance is and when they find out we’re going to be billing, they want to stop everything,” Metzgar said. “I’m just worried that they’re not getting the care they need because they don’t have the information to make these decisions.”

Webster has been on the front line seeing students’ confusion and worry. She said she did not understand the complexity of health insurance until working with Cayuga Health Systems. 

“[Students] know they have insurance when they come in, but then asking them their parent’s date of birth, that just stops them in their tracks,” Webster said. “This person will make sure that they have those things ready.”