Hello from Student Financial Services!
I'm Loron Pellowe and I'm here to tell
you all about your health insurance as
a student at University of Waterloo. What
you need to know
and what you need to do.
Student Financial Services is the
area on campus that calculates your
student fee bill each term.
We also administer the UHIP health
insurance plan which I'll be speaking
about in a few minutes.
We look after financial holds on the
student accounts.
We are also the ones who process
promissory notes,
which I will also speak about in a
moment. We explain
how to pay your fees, how we'll issue
refunds
and how and when to expect tax documents
to be ready related to your student fees.
The term, "Fees Arranged", may be new to you.
It's actually unique to the University
of Waterloo
and it means that you have shown us how
you're going to pay your term fees.
One of the most obvious ways is to just
pay them personally, or
have your parents pay them, or your
grandparents, or anyone who's willing to.
Once your fees are covered
entirely by
payment, your registered status will flip
automatically to "Fees Arranged". But the
other way to become "Fees Arranged"
applies to students who have
scholarships, awards,
bursaries, provincial student loan
funding.
Other forms of financial aid that are
going to be coming to them
after the start of term and they want to
use those
forms of funding to pay their fees.
So, the promissory note will allow them
to show us how they're going to pay
their fees and
when, after the start of term, and it's a
process on Quest in the finances section.
Some of you have probably already used
it this term.
Your very first term when you've got
entrance awards
to apply to your student bill.
Once your promissory note has been
processed, your
registered status on Quest will
automatically update to "Fees Arranged."
You can check your registered status on
Quest in the account summary section
of the finances section on Quest.
You'll see the "Fees Arranged" or "Not Fees
Arranged" registered status beside
the term that you're in now.
What if you're "Not
"Fees Arranged"? Well, it can be pretty
alarming.
For instance, if you don't
have the registered status "Fees Arranged",
you will not have your
scholarships, bursaries, awards, student
loan funding released
to pay your fees. You will lose access, at
some point, during the term
to course material on the online
learning system -
Learn - and finally you will not have
access to health insurance
and other student services.
Your registered status must be "Fees
Arranged"
to have access to the health and dental
coverage.
You actually have three different
health plans available to you
as a University of Waterloo student. One
is the WUSA supplementary health plan,
the second is the WUSA
dental plan and the third applies to
University of Waterloo international
students
or Canadians who don't have coverage
under a provincial health plan. It's the
University Health Insurance Plan.
University Health Insurance Plan, UHIP
for short,
is basic health coverage. Very similar
to what Ontario students would have
under the OHIP plan or
other students across Canada might have
under their provincial health plan.
UHIP covers medical doctor appointments,
hospital and emergency care and
diagnostic
tests, like x-rays and blood tests.
UHIP is compulsory for international
students regardless of where they are
located.
It's an annual plan that we charge to
your student account
by term. You need to be enroled full
time and
on campus in your first term to be
eligible for enrolment
in the UHIP plan. You will be
automatically charged for the UHIP
premium as an international student
and you must maintain continuous
coverage
while you are a student until you
withdraw or
meet degree requirements. Exemptions from
this coverage are
only possible with proof of coverage
under a pre-approved
plan that's specified on the uhip.ca website.
UHIP is also compulsory for Canadians
and permanent residents who don't have
provincial health insurance.
It's available to you for a maximum of
three months to cover the three-month
waiting period
while you're waiting for OHIP coverage
to take effect.
You apply for a UHIP at 
askthecenter@uwaterloo.ca and
at the same time you should be applying
for OHIP coverage
at a Service Ontario office.
How much does UHIP cost? Well, it's a
very reasonably priced plan
at $720 CAD per year.
We charge it to you as $240 CAD
for the fall term and per term
after that.
Here's the process for obtaining proof
of your UHIP coverage
and how to make a claim. As mentioned
earlier, the first
important thing is you need to have the
registered status "Fees arranged."
Around mid-October, someone on the
Student Financial Services team
will take a list of all the students
who have been charged for UHIP
and also are "Fees Arranged" and send that
off to Sun Life.
Sun Life will enter you into their
system and will
email you a coverage card.
Keep the email so that you can always
reference it for the details of your
coverage
with Sun Life. Even before you have your
coverage
card and you're still waiting for it, you
can get medical service.
Take a claim form from the uhip.ca
website
with you to any medical appointments and
keep any receipts
for out-of-pocket expenses you incur
for medical appointments. You'll then
submit the
claim forms and the receipts for
reimbursement to Sun Life
before August 31, 2021 to receive a
reimbursement.
Track your claims and set up direct
deposit for those reimbursements
at www.mysunlife.ca
once you've received your coverage card.
For more information about UHIP, check
out their website at uhip.ca
or review the frequently asked questions
about UHIP
on our website. Remember, your member
number is
UW0 plus your student ID number and
the UHIP policy number is 050150.
You can contact Sun Life to ask questions
about your coverage
at the number on the screen.
You'll also notice you were charged on
your student fee bill
for WUSA health and WUSA dental
insurance.
WUSA, the Waterloo Undergraduate Student
Association, has contracted with a
company called Student Care
to provide students with additional
health coverage to cover
prescriptions, immunizations, travel,
medical equipment and services, health
practitioners, like massage therapy and
physiotherapy,
vision care and dental care. These
WUSA plans are supplementary
to a basic health coverage like
OHIP or UHIP.
If you've been charged for the WUSA
health and dental but you know you
already have coverage
under another plan (say under your
parent's employer plan),
you can opt out of the coverage
annually
at www.studentcare.ca
during their change of coverage periods,
September
8 to 28. First you have to pay the
charges
on your student account and then
once you opt out successfully at the
Student Care website,
Student Care will issue a refund to you.
If you haven't been charged for the
plans because you've enroled in fewer
than
1.5 on-campus units,
regardless of whether they're being
delivered on campus or online,
but you do want this health coverage,
you can self-enrol in this plan
or both plans at www.studentcare.ca
during the same time frame, September 8
to 28.
If you weren't charged for the plans and
you are enroled in
only courses delivered online
and offered online, you're not
eligible for the plan and you cannot self-enrol.
For more information about the WUSA
health and dental plans,
visit www.studentcare.ca.
They also have an on campus office at
room 1006 in the Health Services building.
If you need more information about your
health coverage, read through our website
or contact The Center at 
askthecentre@uwaterloo.ca
or call at extension 42268
or visit them beginning in September on
the first floor of Needles Hall.
Because of COVID, the fall 2020 term
is looking quite different for
first-year students.
Special accommodations for first-term
international students
who have not been previously enroled
in the UHIP or supplementary WUSA plans
and will not be coming to Canada for
fall
term will be communicated to you
by email early in September. So you can
watch for our email.
University of Waterloo wishes you a safe
and healthy first term at Waterloo.
