Sarah Carracher
News Editor
For sexually active college students, STI testing can be a crucial service which college health centers are more often than not relied on to provide. Despite this, many Wooster students — in particular those with the student health insurance (which is mandatory for those otherwise uninsured) — have found it difficult to get tested on campus due to financial constraints.
The student health insurance plan offered through the College to uninsured students provides only accidental and illness coverage and therefore does not cover preventative STI testing. Because of this, if a student displays no symptoms of having an STI, it is considered by the insurance plan to be preventative testing and the student will be charged a $150 deductible plus any additional testing costs.
Several students have reported being unaware of the costs and even being unaware that they were being tested for STIs until they received the bill and the results, due in part to poor communication of information during their appointments. Ananya Shrestha ’16, one such student, went in for an annual checkup and later received a bill for $158.
“Last semester they asked to do some tests on me when I went there for a regular checkup,” Shrestha said. “They never told me that they would charge for it or even what they were for, then I got a bill.”
Sharla Dean ’15 also gets a large bill every year because she has student insurance and a birth control prescription through the Wellness Center.
“In order to get a birth control prescription from the Wellness Center, you have to have an annual exam. The prescription is good for one year, and then you have to be tested again. If you don’t have the exam, you can’t have a prescription,” Dean said. “I have to pay for the ‘optional’ insurance plan the College offers because I’m uninsured, but that plan doesn’t cover things like lab work from an annual because that’s preventative care and the optional insurance plan is accident coverage only. So, in short, I pay several hundred dollars for an insurance plan I don’t need, [more than] $150 for the mandatory exam before I’m allowed a birth control prescription, and then $15 per month for the birth control pills themselves.”
Much of the problem seems to stem from poor communication and misunderstandings between students and nurses. Director of Health and Wellness Services Ray Tucker and Administrative Coordinator of Health and Wellness Services Lori Stine both confirmed that STI testing is not mandatory for a student to receive or renew a birth control prescription.
Visits to the Wellness Center themselves are free, but when a student goes in and wants to be tested for STIs, the office can’t give an exact estimate of what the cost will be because the bill goes directly from the Cleveland Clinic, which processes the tests, to the student. Furthermore, says Tucker, “We don’t know what else is happening during that procedure. There might be other things done, other things billed.”
Though the cost of STI tests at the Wellness Center is frustrating to some students, there are other options for those who exhibit no symptoms and would simply like to be tested for preventative purposes.
VOX, a group that works to provide sexual education on campus in coordination with Planned Parenthood, holds the Get Yourself Tested (GYT) program on campus every semester at no charge to students. The national program is funded by Planned Parenthood, who provides all the services for basic STI tests at a campus location. The program also ensures total confidentiality. Additionally, VOX provides condoms (Trojan or Planned Parenthood brand) free of charge upon request. Students can contact Lily Vela ’16 of VOX to acquire condoms.
Students can also get tested, regardless of insurance status, for $55 at the Health Department, located at 203 S. Walnut St., by appointment between 1 and 3 p.m. every Thursday. Planned Parenthood, located at 334 E. Milltown Rd., also tests for STIs. Students with outside health insurance simply pay their normal insurance copay while students without outside health insurance should take a paystub to show their yearly income, which is then used to determine the testing cost.