Whether your student is a first-year student or nearing the end of a graduate degree, their health and wellness are important. Understanding how McKinley Health Center can support your student’s wellbeing can help them maximize their University of Illinois experience academically, socially, personally, and professionally. McKinley provides both medical services and health education to ensure each student receives the care they need.
Your student is assigned to a primary care caregiver, typically a licensed physician or advanced practitioner. We encourage every student to get acquainted with their assigned caregiver and students may request reassignment at any time to another caregiver, as long as their panel is open to additions. The health history is contained in an electronic health record (fully confidential) available to any McKinley caregiver with whom the student has an appointment. Records are easily obtained from the Medical Records Department, located on the ground floor. Most of our students are healthy and only need to see a caregiver a small number of times while a student at the University. A fairly robust array of common lab tests, x-rays, and pharmaceuticals are available at either no additional charge or at a nominal rate which can be charged to their student account.
Each year McKinley will see approximately 60 percent of enrolled students at least once. Most often our care is for acute illnesses, minor injuries, and issues around anxiety, stress, and short-term depressions. Students can schedule appointments online, or by calling McKinley. More chronic or longer-term problems are typically referred to specialist caregivers in the community, leaving McKinley open for shorter-term interventions facing most all students at one time or another.
STUDENT INSURANCE
All enrolled students must come to campus with health care insurance to cover untoward medical events at off-campus hospitals, emergency rooms, urgent care centers, physician offices, etc. While many students may have insurance through the parenting plan, many parent plans may have only coverage of emergency services off-campus and this is often inadequate for supporting your student’s success. For these reasons, about half of the enrolled student body has student health insurance through United Healthcare, the currently contracted payer with the University of Illinois. To learn more about the student health insurance requirements, please refer to the current campus policy at www.studentcode.illinois.edu/article2/part1/2-103/. For more information regarding student health benefits and costs, please visit our student insurance site at http://si.illinois.edu/
McKinley Health Center services are completely separate from student insurance and no services offered at McKinley are billed to the third-party insurance carrier. McKinley services are paid for by the Student Health Service Fee that is a part of the University fee schedule. See more information here: https://mckinley.illinois.edu/fees/service-fees
Prescriptions filled at McKinley Pharmacy are subsidized through the Health Service Fee and not paid for by third-party insurance. If you would like to use your private insurance to pay for medication, those prescriptions should be filled at an outside pharmacy in the community or at home. A list of over-the-counter and prescription medications covered under the Health Service Fee at McKinley may be found by visiting https://mckinley.illinois.edu/pharmacy/formulary. If your student is covered under the student health insurance plan you may find their formulary by visiting this link.
McKinley Health Center is here to ensure your student remains healthy and we will do our best to ensure any questions are addressed. Please contact us here if you have questions- http://mckinley.illinois.edu/contact/contact-us.