Also, how do other ORC things work? Like books. Do I submit receipts for books I got and NHSC refunds that? Or do they take the estimated cost of books that my school puts on our budget and it is up to me if I want to buy the book or not?
As I alluded to in my post earlier in the thread, for books, you DO NOT submit receipts. The NHSC will reimburse you the ESTIMATED COST of books that your school puts in your budget. If you never buy a single new book, and all of your books for school end up costing you $10, well, then, you keep the difference. No one forces you to use up the entire ORC amount that you get, and no one checks to see how much of it you actually ended up using.
Anyway, maybe someone here could help me out. I am trying to figure out how the NHSC does the Other Reasonable Cost stuff. Specifically, how they account for health insurance required by the school. Here is my situation.
My school requires health insurance. In our official budget it sets aside $3,000 for health insurance (but this isn't charged as a tuition or a fee). They get this number based off the school's Grad Student Health Insurance policy, which is pretty nice. Currently, I am on my wife's insurance through her work, since it is less expensive, but it is not as nice. The school doesn't care, as long as I'm insured.
My question is, will NHSC handle this 1) by depositing $3000 in my account as part of the ORC payment since my school budgets for $3000 for insurance, and if I go with an insurance that costs more, I pay the difference, if it costs less I keep the difference? or 2) by requiring a documentation of what insurance I went with and how much that costs and then will refund that UP to the $3000 my school budgeted.
The deadline for me to decide insurance-wise is tomorrow, but I can't get a hold of anyone at NHSC other that a front line call center rep.
If your school tells them that insurance is required and that you MUST buy the school's insurance plan, then the NHSC will give you $3000.
If your school tells them that insurance is required, but that students can opt out and buy whatever insurance plan they want, that's a different story. They will either give you the $3000 that a typical student at your school would end up using, or they will ask for receipts and pay you back the exact amount that you paid to buy the insurance plan.
To be honest, I would just go with the school's recommended insurance plan, and make it clear with everyone (particularly your financial aid office) that this is what you are doing. I bought my own insurance plan, and while that was fine during the first year I got the scholarship, something happened the second year - either the school forgot to report it to the NHSC, or something. But the NHSC didn't include any money for health insurance in my ORC disbursement the second year, and it took, literally, 7 months to get the issue resolved. I had to photocopy receipts, get my insurance company to send them a bill, etc. It was awful. By the time I was finally reimbursed for the health insurance I had bought, I was about ready to graduate. Seriously.
The path of least resistance is frequently the best with the NHSC.
Furthermore, I doubt that an NHSC rep would be of much help. If you got Mary on the phone today, she'd give you one answer; if you called back and got John on the phone next week, you'd probably get a very different answer. The rules are many and nebulous and the answers are frequently unclear.