• Full-time and dissertation students are required to have health insurance.
• You must file your insurance selection on-line between July 1 and September 14, 2007.
• The Penn Student Insurance Plan (PSIP) is available for all students, as well as dependents.
• Penn employees who are also full-time or dissertation status students must make a selection as well.
• Full-time and dissertation-status students who do not file their selection by September 14, 2007 are automatically enrolled in PSIP.
• Part-time students may enroll in PSIP, but they are not automatically enrolled. However, part-time students who change to full-time or dissertation status are subject to the requirement and will be automatically enrolled in the plan.  
• Dependents (spouses, domestic partners and children) are not automatically enrolled in PSIP. All dependents must be enrolled through the on-line system.

All full-time and dissertation status students are required to have health insurance coverage for both in-patient and outpatient medical care and to provide information about their insurance coverage each year. As a condition of enrollment in the University, students subject to this requirement are automatically enrolled in the Penn Student Insurance Plan (PSIP) unless they provide proof of acceptable alternative coverage.

2007-08 alternative coverage must meet the following minimum standards:

• Plans must provide coverage for pre-existing conditions
• Plans must provide coverage for both in-patient and out-patient medical care in the Philadelphia area, including routine office visits and diagnostic testing. Emergency only care is not sufficient.
• Plans must provide coverage for both in-patient and out-patient mental health care in the Philadelphia area. Emergency only care is not sufficient.
• Plans must offer a lifetime maximum benefit of at least $500,000 in coverage.

The University of Pennsylvania maintains the right to verify understand that the University maintains the right to verify your insurance and to establish coverage in the Penn Student Insurance Plan if it discovers that your plan is inadequate.

Failure to file insurance selection by September 14 will result in automatic enrollment in the Penn Student Insurance Plan (PSIP).

*Important: Students who are automatically enrolled will experience a enrollment processing delay which may result in initial rejection of medical or prescription claims. Enrolling online greatly reduces this delay.

PSIP may begin as early as July 1, or August 1 for first year graduate students. Both returning and new students may opt for September 1 effective date. All plans run through August 31, 2008. The annual premium is billed in 2 increments in the fall and the spring. The student base premium is billed directly to your student account and is subject to the payment guidelines of Student Financial Services.

• You must update your insurance selection each year. You must either enroll in PSIP or waive coverage with proof of comparable coverage by September 14, 2007. Selections from previous years are not rolled forward or renewed.
• If you do not Enroll or Waive by September 14, 2007, you will be automatically enrolled in the PSIP effective September 1, 2007.
• The deadline for automatically enrolled students to make changes (such as adding dependants. Students cannot change plan start date) is September 19, 2007.
• After September 19, 2007, the deadline to cancel the policy without penalty is October 11, 2007.
• If you request cancellation of enrollment between October 12, 2007 and November 1, 2007, you will be assessed an termination fee of $100.00.
• You may not withdraw or cancel coverage in the Plan after November 1, 2007 or if any claims have been filed.

Insurance materials, including instructions on how to file your insurance selection for 2007-08, will be mailed in July.

Your selection must be submitted on-line, using the Penn Portal. Paper documents mailed, emailed or faxed to SHS will NOT be processed.

Please use Penn-in-Touch to verify that the local and permanent addresses on file for you are correct. Also, please check that your e-mail address is correct, as we will use this for subsequent communications to you.

Please free to contact us at 215-573-3523 or by e-mail at shsinsur@pobox.upenn.edu if you have any questions or concerns.

Dennis Shinners
Student Insurance Administrator