<p>My new HMO has told me that they will only cover prescriptions written by one of their doctors. Is this true in general? I’ve been trying to decide whether or not to keep him on my health insurance when he goes off to college in Sept. The school he’s attending in southern California has mandatory health insurance but limited prescription coverage. One advantage of keeping him on my HMO was to have prescriptions covered. The other advantage is that the student health insurance plan has a low lifetime limit so if there’s a catastrophic illness he could run out of insurance quickly. It seems so much easier for him to get health care at the student health center right on campus rather than finding a doctor in the hmo network - but if he needs a prescription and needs to use the hmo he’d have to see a second doctor in order to have the prescription covered by the hmo. Currently he’s not taking any meds and I don’t forsee anything but one never knows…The HMO is costing us less than $50 a month to have him on the plan and the mandatory student health insurance is ridiculously expensive(off the top of my head around $2000 a year). </p>
<p>Also if we keep the HMO, does it make sense to pick a doctor in the schools zip code or keep the doctor close to home? We have to pick a new doctor anyway since they had assiged him a pediatrician and at 17 and 6’ 3" he feels a little silly sitting on those childrens chairs looking at the Sesame street characters while he waits in the office.</p>
<p>Colleges vary. At ours, there is mandatory health insurance fee that will cover emergency visits to the infirmary and such; but it is in addition to mandatory another health insurance (we live in MA). For most students, it’s Blue Cross Blue Shield. We opted to keep our S on our own HMO since we live close by and he can go to his regular doctor for check-ups (will switch from pediatrician to adult doctor). </p>
<p>In your son’s case, the same thing may apply. If possible, keep him on your HMO (it’s cheaper, too, to have family coverage). He can have regular check-ups during vacations, and the prescriptions can be refilled automatically,</p>
<p>If you stay with the HMO, make sure you pick a doctor in the area the school, so that if something happens he does have a primary physician in the area that is in network. Also find out which hospitals are in network. I had a hefty bill from my son who had some orthopedic x rays, MRI, CATs done for a possible injury. It would have been far less had he gone to the hospital just a few blocks away as it was in network.</p>
<p>If the school ‘requires’ a policy - then I would recommend sticking with both - covers all the bases that way - what one does not cover - most likely the other will. Just have to plan the ‘‘healthy medical visits’’ a bit more carefully.</p>
<p>Being as I have a kiddo far from home - who was injured - required surgery - we had to be creative - out of area costs for most services needed - but we were able to utilize both insurances to maximize the benefit and to minimize the costs.</p>
<p>You have to think a bit out of the box when it comes to the best insurance coverage/situation - think more long term than short term.</p>