The University of Missouri’s Student Health Center will start charging students a fee for office visits. Increasing health care costs across the board have prompted the fee, which will go into effect July 1.
Christian Basi, director of the MU News Bureau, said the changes mean the student health center will now provide more in-clinic procedures not covered or not available before.
“Students may have to pay for a copay,” Basi said, “but we’re hoping that at the end of everything that it turns out to be a good thing because students are able to get the full procedure done in-house without having to wait and potentially wait several weeks before they go home to have a procedure done.”
Exactly how much students pay will vary depending on their particular health insurance. The current student health fee included in school costs will stay the same and continue to fund the health center, record tracking and public health events, such as vaccinations clinics during the ongoing mumps outbreak on campus.
Basi said the student health center has been looking at charging the extra fee for several months, and that addressing rising health care costs have been on the center’s agenda for some time. The center accepts health insurance from most major provider networks.