What does your college student do when he or she gets sick while away at school?
In many cases, the first call is probably to mom. But mom is a hundred miles away. So what now?
Here are the usual options for getting healthcare on campus:
- Find the school clinic, which is probably somewhere on campus.
- Find a doctor somewhere nearby and hope you can get an appointment soon. (And hope he/she is in your health plan’s network).
- Visit an urgent care center. That could take a while, and it will probably cost you $150, give or take.
There are potential problems with each option. These may include:
- Cost.
- Availability – as with most healthcare options outside a hospital, care is only available during business hours.
- Time. How long will it take to find and get an appointment with a doctor? How long will you wait at the urgent care center?
We’ve got a great solution that every college student should have.
Affordable Healthcare Access for College Students
There’s one affordable and common-sense solution that should be available to every college student:
Telemedicine.
Instead of trying to figure out what to do when she gets sick, your college student can simply log on and setup a phone or video consultation with an in-state, board-certified doctor.
That doctor can prescribe medication when appropriate and send the prescription to a nearby pharmacy. At the very least the doctor will let her know if she needs to seek further treatment or not.
The best part is that she can access a doctor 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In most cases the consult takes place less than half an hour after the request is made.
And the consultation is FREE.
How Much Does Telemedicine Cost?
Your entire family can get 24/7 access for $10/month. There are no additional fees or copays.
At that price, this really becomes an easy decision.