N.Y. Probes Student Insurance

Options, Disclosure Studied at Georgetown, Other Schools

Georgetown University has received a subpoena from New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo as part of a broader investigation into how colleges interact with health insurance providers.

The investigation, which includes several public and private campuses in New York state, comes as families have expressed concern that universities require students to buy health insurance from schools even if they are already covered under their parents' policies. Some suggest that schools are not providing enough information about options, or that school officials could be steering students to providers and getting payments in return.

Cuomo's office did not return calls for comment on the nature of the investigation, which was first reported in the New York Times.

The questions arise at a time when advocates are pushing for more coverage for students. One in five traditional-age college students was uninsured in 2006, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report issued this spring.

The American College Health Association encourages schools to require students to have health insurance, and 57 percent of schools do, said Dana Mills, Marquette University's director of student health service, who led an association task force on student health insurance. Most private schools require insurance, but fewer than half of public universities do. "There's a beginning of a trend to require health insurance as a condition of enrollment," he said.

But it's rare, Mills said, for colleges to mandate that students buy the university health plan; most provide a few options.

Georgetown spokeswoman Julie Bataille said the school is "reviewing the subpoena to determine the appropriate response." She said students are required to have health insurance, but don't have to buy Georgetown's plan. The university provides one option, but most students are covered by another source -- usually their parents, she said, in the case of undergraduates.

The school's Web site says most full-time students are charged once during the year for the "premier plan" designed for Georgetown students and offered by UnitedHealthcare insurance. Students who have coverage of at least $100,000 per illness and $100,000 per injury can opt out of that plan during fall and spring open-enrollment periods, the site says.

Last year, Cuomo looked into colleges' relationships with student-loan providers; the investigation found that some schools were benefiting from steering students to certain lenders and receiving payments, free trips or other perks.