New: Out-of-Area Coverage for College Students

We now have a solution for college students who attend school outside of our service area.

Through our new College Extended Network Program, dependent children who leave our service area for 90 consecutive days or more to attend a college, university, technical school, or vocational school can get access to the national PHCS Healthy Directions and Multiplan networks while at school for no additional cost.

The dependent college student will receive a special ID card and can search the PHCS/MultiPlan networks through Your Health Alliance. All other family members on the plan will keep their current ID cards and will use the standard provider network.

Who Can Participate

• College students only (not dependent children living outside service area for other reasons)
  New and existing fully insured large and small groups
• HMO, POS, and PPO groups
• Self-funded groups can choose to offer the benefit
• Not available to members on individual plans

Other Details

• We will begin accepting student certification forms on July 1, 2017. This form is available in the Forms & Resources section of Your Health Alliance for brokers.
• Extended coverage for eligible dependents begins August 1 for 12 months and must be renewed with a new form each year.
• The program is automatically included for fully insured small and large groups for no additional fee.
• Self-funded groups can add the benefit for no administrative fee. An additional cost for the use of the MultiPlan network will apply.
• There is no cost to the member to participate.
• Students attending schools within our Illinois/Iowa seamless network aren’t eligible for the program.
• Retrospective participation in the program is not allowed. Participation will start August 1 for those who submit forms before the academic school year begins. Otherwise, participation will be effective the first day of the following month after we receive the completed form.
• When getting care from PHCS/MultiPlan providers, members are responsible for making sure preauthorization is requested for services that require it. They can call customer service to check if a service requires preauthorization.
• We will remind members to submit new forms each year before their dependent’s extended coverage expires.

For questions, employees should call the customer service number on the back of their ID cards, and employers should contact their client consultants.