Irritating sniffles, coughing, sore throats, and fevers can be time consuming when a doctor’s visit is needed. Utilizing Doctor On Demand can save you time for these common symptoms. Doctor On Demand is a virtual office visit that can be used as an alternative to waiting at urgent care or a visit to your physician’s office for common illnesses. This service saves you time, costs you the same co-pay that you would owe when going to urgent care or your physician’s office, and saves the University money on our self-insured health plans. Examples of common illnesses would be skin irritations, pink eye, UTIs, cold, and flu. For more information visit our Doctor on Demand website.

If you are a Wellmark member (our self-insured health plan vendor) you may participate in Blue365, which is a discount program for fitness classes, fitness trackers, hearing aids, and much more! Registration is required and utilizing the discounts comes at no extra cost to you. Delta Dental (our self-insured dental vendor) also provides a free discount program to all of its members called DeltaVision. These discounts can be used on vision materials. Even more, Principal Financial (our life insurance and LTD vendor) has discounts available to our employees and their family members. These discounts include: will preparation, hearing aid discounts, laser vision services, and travel assistance. Take advantage of these discounts as often as you’d like!

Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, our health insurance provider, will provide an Explanation of Benefits (EOB) each time a health or prescription claim is processed. Understanding your EOB is very important. The document tells you:

1. Your doctor’s appointment/service, or prescription, has been reviewed by Wellmark.
2. How much our health plan account will pay towards what is owed for the appointment.
3. What you will owe as 'patient responsibility'.

An EOB is not a bill, if you owe anything the bill should come from the doctors office. By knowing your plan, and reading your Explanation Of Benefits, you can double check what you are paying towards your appointment or service is correct. You should always receive an EOB prior to receiving your bill, this way you understand why you are being charged.

For example, your provider could incorrectly submit a claim resulting in Wellmark denying the claim. You could then receive a bill for the service when UNI’s plan actually covers the service that you received. By understanding your health plan, you can double check these charges and save yourself money. If you have questions on any charges relating to your health insurance, please call the number on the back of your Wellmark ID and/or your provider. To learn more please watch our video.

Wellmark®, UNI’s health insurance vendor, offers tools to help members determine the cost of an appointment prior to visiting the doctor’s office. These tools are called the Wellmark Care Finder and Cost Estimator Tool located within the MyWellmark system. These tools will show you what your out-of-pocket cost will be for different types of services and appointments. Keep in mind that services done within the state of Iowa cost the self-insured plans less than when services are done outside of the state. The Care Finder tool also provides ratings and reviews on providers when you complete a search. We have put together a website called Know Before You Go to help you select your care.

Teeth cleanings do not only benefit our oral health but our overall health as well. UNI’s dental plan provides all members two teeth cleanings per year which are 100% covered. New to our dental plan in 2018 is Enhanced Benefits, which provides additional paid teeth cleanings for those who have certain health conditions. For example, an individual with diabetes can receive two additional paid teeth cleanings per year. Anyone covered on your dental plan can take advantage of this program. Review the Enhanced Dental Benefits handout for more information.