Health and Dental Black-Out Period
It’s the beginning of the Fall semester, which means the ECSU is busy helping our students with their Health and Dental plans for the year. This year is a little different - we have had to make a few changes to continue providing this service to you through the pandemic as well as changing our systems to align with what other student health plans in BC are doing. We are trying to help everyone out the best we can and we will continue to be there for you through the transition.
Black-Out Period:
We have had to change our operations this year in order to further align with standard practices for student insurance plans across other students’ unions and universities. In the past, we have not had our system operate this way but we needed to change it to make it equal and fair across BC. From September 1st to the week of October 5th-9th, 2020 you will be in what is called a coverage “black out” period. During this time you will not be active in the Greenshield system and will not be able to use the plan for direct billing.
This means that you will be enrolled in our plan for the coverage period of September 1, 2020 - August 31, 2021, once the enrolment is confirmed from the University. If you have to pay for extended health or dental services during the black out period, please save your receipts and you will be able to file a claim and get your reimbursement after October 14th and we will send you an email when your account is active.
We understand this will be a learning curve and could bring a lot of frustration to students during this time. We appreciate your flexibility and patience with us throughout the transition.
Opting Out of your Health Plan:
Students taking 9 credits or more will automatically be enrolled in the plan. The opt-out option will apply to students who have another Extended Health and Dental benefits plan.
Opt-outs can be processed until the deadline of Sept. 22nd. Once you’ve opted out for the year you won’t be able to opt back in. This is also a very firm deadline and we won’t be able to accept opt-out requests after the deadline.
Members will continue to be opted-out of the plan for the entire course of their studies. The opt-out status can be adjusted annually during the change of coverage period.
The application to opt-out online is here:
Fee details:
The fee will be removed from student accounts after the close of the opt-out period, provided the coverage is deemed to be adequate for the purposes of opting out (eg, not BC MSP). The $275 Health and Dental plan fee will be applied as a credit to students’ accounts for the January semester.
Out of Country Deferrals:
International students studying from out of Canada for the 2020-2021 academic year will be eligible for a deferral for the Extended Health and Dental benefits plan.
Please keep an eye on your emails - we will be sending you a form to fill out to confirm where you are currently living in order to know how many people are ineligible and need to be deferred. Once this process is complete, you will receive a credit to your student account for the Spring semester.
If you intend to arrive in Vancouver during the fall or Spring semester, we request that you do not process a deferral of your enrolment in the Extended Health and Dental benefits plan for the 2020-2021 academic year as this coverage period is until August 31st, 2021. This coverage is considered mandatory and provides additional coverage for dental benefits and other services that are not covered by BC provincial health coverage or Guard Me.
