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Monday, March 18, 2024

Processing times mean students could still owe after submitting SHIP Waiver

Fee payment deadline is today, Sept. 15

Students whose Student Health Insurance Plan Waivers were tentatively approved should be on the lookout — they could still be on the hook for an $874 bill if their waiver has not fully processed by today, Sept. 15, the fee payment deadline.

The UC Davis fee payment deadline is today. Students who owe money to the university could face dropped classes if they do not pay the fee on their MyBill account. And though the SHIP Waiver was due on Sept. 10, processing times mean that if the waiver has not fully worked its way through the system, students could still owe the university $874. Once the waiver receives final approval, students will be refunded that money.

When submitting SHIP Waivers, students who meet all the insurance criteria have their forms “tentatively approved,” according to Todd Atwood, the insurance services supervisor for Student Health and Counselling Services.

Changes this year, however, have led to longer processing times. Atwood explained that while in previous years only 10% of waivers were audited, this year every single waiver is undergoing an audit. 

Waivers, once submitted and approved, usually take 48 hours to fully process. With five days between the SHIP Waiver deadline and the fee payment deadline, in previous years the vast majority of all approved waivers would have processed completely by the second date. Audited waivers, however, “can take 7-10 days, or longer, if additional documentation is required from the student,” according to Atwood. This could lead to students needing to front the money for the SHIP, even if they do not plan on using the insurance.

Most students submit their SHIP Waivers far before the deadline, Atwood explained, “so that they do not run into this issue.”

“It is important to note that the online waiver application for Fall quarter 2019 has been open and available for students to submit their waivers since May,” Atwood said via email. “We also sent out email reminders to all students in July, and again in August. It is also one of the requirements on the MyAdmissions checklist for new students to review their health insurance needs, and to submit a waiver if they already have their own coverage.”

Students who do not pay the SHIP fee by the deadline today will receive non-payment notices. According to Atwood, his department will review the names of students on the dropped for non-payment list.

“If anyone on the list is at risk of being dropped solely because the UC SHIP fee hasn’t been paid, we will look to see if they have submitted a waiver, and where it is in the process,” Atwood said. “If it has final approval, but it hasn’t posted to their student account yet, we will notify the Office of the Registrar to not drop that student.”

Once this year’s round of SHIP Waivers have been processed, Student Health and Counselling Services will look at the process and see if changes need to be made regarding the timeline.

“Several years ago, we actually moved the waiver deadline date back from the same day as the Fee Payment Deadline, to 5 days prior, to allow time for the waivers to process and post to their student accounts,” Atwood said. “We will review this year’s information about turnaround times for the audit process, and possibly adjust our deadline date further back in future years, to allow for more time between the waiver deadline date and the Fee Payment Deadline date.”

Written by: Kenton Goldsby — campus@theaggie.org


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