ASU Health Services takes a variety of insurances, but the Counseling Services takes only one — its own. ASU is contracted with Aetna, and that is the only health insurance a student can directly use to pay for counseling services here.
With medical services, insurance companies are much more willing to contract with different types of providers, Aaron Krasnow, associate vice president of ASU counseling and health services said.
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"Insurance companies prioritize medical services over mental health services,” Krasnow said.
In counseling, there are only three or four services a person can purchase, while in the medical services there are many different possibilities, he added.
For students looking to get counseling services, there is also the option of the Bridge Plan, in which students can get counseling for the same copay as those with the Aetna plan, for a price.
Bridge Plan works when students have no insurance or insurance that might not otherwise cover them for services anywhere, Krasnow said.
However, the system they use now isn't the one that has always been used.
“There was a period of time when ASU counseling took more insurances than just Aetna and over a number of years we found that students were actually paying more out of pocket for insurance for other providers … than they were for our standard fee,” said Krasnow, also a psychologist by trade, said.
Students, like social work freshman Lauren Barnes, said they are concerned about this and the possibility of some students not being able to pay.
“There should be counseling and therapy available to them without having to have insurance. … They say they care about the health of the students, but I’ve even had friends who want to get counseling but they just say ‘well, I can’t afford it.’ They say it’s an option, but it’s not if you can’t pay for it,” Barnes said.
Krasnow said he wants students to know they have options.
“We never let finances get in the way of our care, counseling or in medical. If a student has no insurance, or no capacity to pay, we’ll still see them,” Krasnow said.
Krasnow said they have the ability to examine people's financial circumstances and figure out their capacity to pay.
“Those are individual decisions that we work with the student, sometimes it’s helping them, they might not know that there’s insurance available to them at no cost or low cost,” he added.
Some students still see a problem with this insurance coverage policy.
“I don’t think it really makes sense when you consider that not every student is going to choose to enroll in ASU’s insurance plan if they’re coming from out of state or a situation where their own private insurance is better,” social work freshman Tristan Peterson-Steinert said.
Regardless, Krasnow said his office doesn’t vouch for any particular health plan and believes the decision should be up to each individual student. However, he said he does believe Aetna is a great product.
“It provides tremendous coverage for students, as it relates to their medical and counseling needs,” Krasnow said.
Krasnow said part of the reason ASU stopped taking other insurances is because those insurances didn’t cover ASU’s services.
“Often they had insurances that wouldn’t pay for the type of services that we provide. … Because they had enough psychologists, counselors and social workers that insurance companies can limit the number of providers that take their insurance, they decided not to … credential our providers,” Krasnow said.
Related Links:
History of ASU Health Services
Mental health and you: facts and on-campus resources for ASU students
Reach the reporter at avcabral@asu.edu or follow @angeligagaa on Twitter.
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