Academic Year 2017-2018- Welcome Letter

Welcome to Rockford University Athletics! We are happy to have you join the Regents. Our Athletics Mission Statement is:Preparing students for a life of leadership and service through the pursuit of excellence in academics and athletics.

Before the fun begins, there are a few forms that must be completed and turned in to the Lang Health Center and the Athletic Training staff. You will be receiving a lot of information regarding medical history, physical exams, immunization, insurance, acceptance of risk, emergency contact, consent to treat, drug screening, and sickle cell testing. Much of this information is required of all students and student athletes. Questions regarding this information can be addressed by contacting us or you may ask at the orientation meetings.

**Please pay attention to this information and retain a copy of this letter for future reference. We also want you to know what happens if you do get injured during participation, what is considered an athletic injury and what is not, how the initial treatment and referral is done and who are the people who will be caring for you while you’re here at Rockford University.

REQUIRED INFORMATION: **ALL FORMS MUST BE TURNED IN BY AUGUST 1ST **

Immunizations

All full-time students, including student-athletes, must meet Illinois State Law and college admission requirements for immunizations and TB screening. New students should have received an admission packet that explained these requirements. Returning students should already have provided immunizations records at their time of admission. You only need to provide immunization records once! However, if an immunization has expired, Lang Health Center will give a booster prior to your athletic participation for that year. All immunization records are to be turned in to Lang Health Center.

Medical History and Physical Exam Clearance to Participate

All medical history forms, athletic training forms, proof of insurance, emergency contact information and the physical exam must be turned in to the athletic training staff prior to any participation.

The policy and procedure for athletic clearance for Rockford University athletes is as follows:

*All new incoming student athletes (freshmen/transfer) may bring a physical examination completed by his or her treating physician or family physician.This physical needs to be completed on or after 6/1/2017. We understand this physician may know you best. We DO NOT accept any immediate care or chiropractic exams for athletic participation. For those new athletes that do not have a family or primary care physician, our team physicians will do sports physical exams typically on the day you check in for camp.Subsequent dates will be announced as they become available.The cost is $20.00 and will be charged to the student account

*Student athletes who report for athletic participation with a history of recent injury may be asked to provide the release to return to athletic participation. If you know you have had a recent injury or surgery, please obtain this information from your treating physician in advance. It will assist with timely ability to participate.

*As a Rockford University returning athlete, our team physicians hold annual physical exams for athletes in the fall of the academic year. All the returning athletes are required to participate in this follow up exam. The cost is $20.00 and will be charged to the student account. NO EXCEPTIONS!

Primary Insurance Coverage

All full-time students, including student-athletes, must have primary health insurance. For those students who come to Rockford Universityand are no longer covered under a parent’s or employer plan the University provides students the opportunity to purchase a basic health insurance plan at a group rate. This is a very basic plan and cannot take the place of comprehensive health care, but does help defray the cost of medical care. Student-athletes should turn in verification of their health insurance and a copy of their insurance card to the athletic trainer. Providing the athletic trainer or coach a copy of an insurance card and completing insurance information for athletics DOES NOT fulfill the on-line waiver requirement of the student health plan.

Student athletes who have primary insurance and need to waive the student health plan must do so on line at the Lang Health Center website under campus and community.In addition, student athletes muststill provide the athletic training staff with a copy of the insurance card.

ROCKFORD UNIVERSITY ATHLETIC INSURANCE COVERAGE

Rockford University provides an excess type insurance policy for athletics. Our insurance carrier (First Agency, Inc.) provides a secondary coverage for the student athlete for ACCIDENTS that occur while participating in the play or supervised practice of intercollegiate sports. All bills must be submitted to the student’s primary insurance carrier first with an explanation of benefits provided, before our policy will begin to pay.

The NCAA does not allow us or any college or university to provide coverage or pay bills incurred for expenses related to illnesses or conditions that are not sustained as the direct result of an accident in our intercollegiate sports program. Pre-existing or chronic conditions are not covered by our accident plan. Intramural or “pickup” games, unsupervised practices and any unsupervised off-season activities are not considered intercollegiate sports thus injuries sustained during these times are not covered. Pre-existing conditions or complications from an existing injury will not be covered by the secondary insurance. Any injury on a body part that has been injured in the past (1) year, is considered a “re-injury” on that part and is not covered.

RU Insurance for Athletes Does Not Cover:

  • Pre-existing conditions
  • Illnesses
  • Injuries sustained outside of supervised RU athletics
  • Injuries sustained out of season
  • Bills attained outside student/athlete’s HMO vendor
  • Costs above and beyond usual and customary charges
  • RU reserves the right to uphold denials from primary insurance company
  • Medical bills incurred without RU knowledge of injury

Claims Procedure

All medical bills incurred as the result of an injury in the intercollegiate sports program will be sent to you.

Claims for athletic injuries must be filed within sixty (60) days of the date of an accident and will cover claims for services up to one year from the date of the accident. All bills received by you should be processed according to the following claim procedure:

  • Submit all bills to your family or employer’s group insurance plan – your insurance carrier is considered the primary carrier and a claim must be filed with them first. If bills are received by Lang Center or the Athletic Trainer they will be forwarded to you for processing. Your insurance company will subsequently make a determination on your claim.
  1. They will accept the claim and pay all or part of the bills
  2. They can deny the claim and send you a letter of denial or pay just a portion of the claim. Bring the Explanation of benefits and denial letter with the bills attached to Lang Center or Athletic Training. We will process with our secondary carrier.
  3. If your bills are denied because the criteria of your primary insurance was not met, i.e. not following the referral rules for HMO, the secondary carrier will not pay the claim. Remember to always follow the rules of your policy.
  • Often an insurance carrier may request additional information while processing claims. This additional request can be for medical records, employment verification or other insurance coverages. Please cooperate with them and provide information in a timely manner. Remember the invoices are in your name and it is best to settle the claim promptly.
  • If there are problems with your claim with either your primary or our secondary insurance, please make sure we are aware of the problem immediately. The invoices are in your name and if no payment is made they can go to collection. We will make every attempt to assist you so that this does not happen, however you may need to make a payment to prevent this.

Rockford University and First Agency DO NOTreceive copies of the bills sent to the injured athlete. The bills cannot be paid unless the invoices and explanations of benefits (EOB’s) are provided within a timely matter.

Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO) and Network Providers

We will make every effort to work with you to insure that the process works smoothly for all. However, as we all are aware, health insurance can be confusing at times. We encourage you to be as familiar as possible with your own personal health insurance company and the requirements your company has. If you are a member of an HMO you will need to make the decision now as to how you want to access health care for your son or daughter if the primary care physician is out of this geographic area. Our secondary carrier will not honor claims for HMO charges that have been denied because the primary care did not refer. The exception in HMO coverage is that the emergency visit will be covered, however, the follow up care will need to be completed within the requirements of the HMO.

We also will try to keep within your provider network. Our team physicians (Dr. Scott Trenhaile and Dr. Ryan Enke) are a part of OrthoIllinois. Please make sure that OrthoIllinois and our team physicians are within your network. If they are not, please make sure we know how you want your athlete’s health care to be addressed. We routinely use OSF-St. Anthony Medical Center, Swedish American Hospital, and Swedish American Health System for referrals. Our family practice physician is Jamil Hussain, M.D.

I hope this has provided you with a basic understanding of our athletic insurance coverage and the information that we need. Please keep this letter in a safe, convenient place so that you can refer to it in the event of an intercollegiate sports injury. If you have any questions or concerns or have information about a specific network or requirement your carrier has, please make sure you speak to one of us. If a question should arise, please feel free to contact us either by phone or e-mail at the following addresses.

Sincerely,

Cecelia M. BristolHolli A. Hall

Cecelia Bristol, RN, BSN, MATHolli A. Hall, MS, LAT, ATC

DirectorHead Athletic Trainer

Lang CenterAthletics Department

815-226-4083815-394-5075

Fax 815-226-3335Fax 815-394-5077