Health Services Fee
Health Services Fee
The Health Services Fee is a Mandatory Student Fee that was voted into action by the Associated Students. Each student who registers for six or more credits on the Bellingham campus will be charged the fee. Students who are enrolled in at least one class can opt in to pay the Health Services Fee as well if they are taking fewer than six credits.
This fee provides a stable funding base for WWU's health related services by providing accessible medical, mental health and wellness services to students. The fee is the primary source of revenue that supports staffing and operations of the Student Health Center, a portion of the Counseling and Wellness Center and the Resilience and Prevention Services Office. These offices provide both clinical and educational services to Western students.
Why does the Student Health Center Charge on top of this?
The Health Services Fee supports the staffing and operations for all three offices listed above. As healthcare costs began to increase more each year, the university met with student leadership and discussed options to continue to raise the Health Services Fee for all students, or to consider insurance billing while keeping the Health Services Fee lower. Students considered the options and requested to move forward with insurance billing.
Billing for Student Health Center services covers the remainder of the operational costs for the center ("keeps the lights on"), and helps us keep visit related fees lower than any other community provider. Utilizing a combination of Health Services Fee revenue and insurance billing revenue helps keep out-of-pocket costs low for all students who are paying for services directly. In most cases, our self-pay rates are less than 50% of the price a student would pay in the local community. This funding will also support additional providers to help keep our services accessible and available when students need them.