I'm a student spouse covered under the Chickering Plan at the University of Chicago. I was also covered under the Chickering Plan offered at the University of Michigan when I was a graduate student there. While both plans are appallingly bad, the coverage Chickering makes available to students at U of C is 100 times worse than the coverage at U of M.
My worst experience, by far, though has been breaking my foot while on the U of C plan. I broke my foot on a wet stair in graduate student housing. I went to the Student Care Clinic-- the soonest appointment I could get was three hours after the injury. The doctor at the care center (Rachel Amdur) was great though, I got sent for x-rays and she called me back ASAP after receiving my x-rays to get a cast. If that was it, it would have been fine. BUT I was referred to Dr. Toolan in orthopedics (who was rude and insulting). He insisted on having my cast removed the Tuesday after it was initially cast. He glanced at it briefly, said, essentially "yep, it's broken" and ordered another cast put on. My insurance was thus billed for two casts ($450 each, not including an $80 rubber/velcro "weight-bearing" shoe), two cast removals ($150 each) as well as a consultation with him at around $200)!!!!! On a subsequent visit I spoke only with residents working under him, but my insurance was still billed for a consultation with him.
All told, breaking my foot at U of C cost $5000, nearly $1000 of which I had to pay out of pocket, as Chickering covered only 80 percent. I work part-time. My husband is a grad student in Social Thought and TAs as a writing intern for one or two sections a semester. Needless to say, $1000 was more than we could afford. I'm not sure how I would change this if I were a hospital administrator, but I would look closely at how much the hospital bills for things like casts, cast removal and cast shoes. And I would question a doctor's insistence that a cast be taken off, just to be replaced after a brief
exam.
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UCHP participants have no midwifery option
The new chair of Obstetrics, Arthur Haney, has abolished the Nurse-Midwives' program, which provided excellent, personal care to healthy childbearing women. In addition, a small group of obstetricians ("extended" by obstetric residents) will now deliver all of the babies born at U of C Hospitals. This spells a complete end to continuity of care: it is now impossible for the average woman to deliver her baby at U of C with a practitioner she has seen for prenatal care.
Given substantial scientific evidence that stress plays a role in determining the outcome of labor, providing a caregiver with whom a woman can be comfortable should be a medical priority. In addition, this "assembly line" approach to childbirth undermines birth as a family event.
Under the current conditions, the U of C cannot be considered an acceptable place to give birth. Deliver your baby at a hospital (such as Northwestern) that honors women's autonomy in reproductive healthcare, and write to Dr. Haney (ahaney@babies.bsd.uchicago.edu) and to Hospital President Michael Riordan (mriordan@uchospitals.edu) to tell them you are doing so.
Those covered under UCHP should petition for out-of-network converage for midwifery care since no comparable care is offered at U of C.
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I recently was referred to the U of C Gynecological Oncology Dept. by the Student Care Center for testing. The doctor I visited was unpleasant, patronizing, and incompetent -- he did not perform the correct test, which I had to have repeated. However, Chickering will only pay for one such test in a year, and as a consequence I had to pay several thousand dollars to be tested twice. I would advise other women to avoid the U of C Gynecology division; patient care is clearly not their primary concern.
U of C hospitals for years had provided a vibrant hospital based midwifrey practice and now it is under threat for no satisfactory reasons by the U of C hospitals and more specifically chairman of the Ob/Gyne Department, Dr. Arthur Haney. Show your support of the U of C midwives. Show your support by signing a letter available here at support U of C midwives. Read about it in the maroon