International students to boycott on-campus clinic

Raymond Kwan
Senior Staff
International students may have to seek medical attention off-campus in order to avoid being charged a co-pay fee, despite having health insurance.
The International Students Asso- ciation at York (ISAY) is campaigning to boycott the York Lanes Appletree Medical Centre, which since Sept. 1 has been charging international students a $15 co-pay fee per visit despite the fact they’re covered under the University Health Insurance Plan (UHIP).
Appletree York Lanes director Shafiq Bhanji explains the fees are necessary in order to ensure the quality and continuation of services they provide.
“There are some clinics who will discount their doctors [fees] and they will accept whatever the insurance company pays; that’s their policy, but our policy is that we have excellent doctors who provide excellent service and […] we’re not going to be able to do that if we discount our doctor’s fees,” explained Bhanji.
Eve Kachaje, ISAY student affairs director, said the student club is starting a petition to “show the [Appletree Medical Centre] that we do have a lot of students backing us.”
In an attempt to encourage international students to stay away from the Appletree clinic, ISAY has listed various off-campus clinics on their website that do not charge an administration fee, such as The Doctor’s Office at Jane and Finch Mall.
The clinic’s new administrative team moved in May 2010. Under the old administration, international students could pay the administrative fee in one of two ways.
Students could either pay $50 each time and have the clinic return the money to them by cheque or pay $50 for the entire year’s service, without getting the money back. A sign placed inside the clinic explains the old $50 “administration fee” was replaced with $15 “co-pay fee.”
The old management had students pay $60 for a claim processing fee, according to Rob Tiffin, York’s vice-president students; however, the new management does not charge students that fee.
Tiffin, who has been in talks with Appletree, added the $60 claims processing fee charged by the previous administration would have resulted in a net loss of $15 for the student regardless.
Kachaje remains frustrated and intends to voice her concerns when ISAY has its next meeting with Tiffin.
“[Tiffin] is still in talks with [the clinic]. When we talk to him in November, [we will] let him know that we’re stopping talks with [the clinic] because talks haven’t been doing anything,” said Kachaje.
Tiffin believes progress has, in fact, been made since students no longer have to pay $60 to have their forms processed. He urges all students exercise patience as they continue talks with Appletree to improve service, since the univer- sity has no control over Appletree Medical Centre.
“We are dealing with a private entity […] we’re asking [the clinic] to change their business model,” said Tiffin. “It’s certainly within the right of the clinic to have that co-pay getting paid the difference between the old and [new] rate.”