Intern Benefits

[Fogg]

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I'll be starting pharmacy school in June and quitting my current job. I'm a little worried about losing medical benefits for my wife and I.

I was wondering if anyone would be willing to share what kind of benefits options they have as a pharmacy intern. I'm trying to decide where to get a job during school.

 

[117296]

I'll be starting pharmacy school in June and quitting my current job. I'm a little worried about losing medical benefits for my wife and I.

I was wondering if anyone would be willing to share what kind of benefits options they have as a pharmacy intern. I'm trying to decide where to get a job during school.

None in my experience, I work as casual labor so there are no bene's for me (although I work more than a .5 FTE/week usually )

 

[njac]

my hospital does not offer pharmacy intern positions with point status (bennies).

Rather sucks considering that many weeks I was there more than techs who did have benefits.

Your school will likely have a student insurance option. These usually have spouse/family options as well but tend to be $$$$. Can you get insurance through your wife? That may be cheaper.

 

[confettiflyer]

Your school will likely have a student insurance option. These usually have spouse/family options as well but tend to be $$$$. Can you get insurance through your wife? That may be cheaper.

This will your best option (outside of the wife getting insurance at her place of work and adding you as a spouse). It will probably be cheaper than opting for COBRA, but double check just to be sure.

Usually you can fold the cost of school insurance into fin-aid as it's tacked on to your tuition bill, but again, double check at your institution just to make sure.

Final cheapskate option... how healthy are you and the wife? Could you skate by on a high deductible plan for emergencies and just pay out of pocket for dental/vision/MD or NP visits? Price this out (premiums + out of pocket expenses for maintenance meds, etc...) but be aware that any ED admission will set you back $$$$ to meet the deductible (usually $5k) and wipe out any savings you may have had vs. going on a traditional plan.

 

[museabuse]

my hospital does not offer pharmacy intern positions with point status (bennies).

Rather sucks considering that many weeks I was there more than techs who did have benefits.

Your school will likely have a student insurance option. These usually have spouse/family options as well but tend to be $$$$. Can you get insurance through your wife? That may be cheaper.

I had insurance through my school and you don't realize how expensive it is because they include it in your tuition and your loans pay for it. It is extremely overpriced to get it through your school and cobra may actually be cheaper and better insurance. Or look for insurance like blue cross, I wish I did that and got my own insurance.

My school insurance was not only expensive but it was really bad. I pretty much had to pay a lot of money and it didn't really cover labs and you had to pay 20% of everything. I asked why the school insurance is so bad, they said it used to be really good but when medical students are learning about all the diseases they all begin to think they have them and would go to the doctor and order a lot of tests... so they had to make students pay for a good portion of the costs to stop them from going to the doctor.

 

[meister]

My school was nice enough to not offer any student health insurance so I had to go private. Thanks VCU! Granted I don't go to pharmacy school, but I'd imagine it's the same here at VCU. I doubt anyone gets benefits as a pharmacy intern through the hospital, that sounds wrong.

 

[njac]

my school insurance is pricey up front but actually not bad. I think it's about $100/month.

Rx's are 50:50 except for birth control which is 70:30 or 80:20. They pay 80% on labs. Appointments are $20 and I think so are x-rays.

Frankly it's better than the BC/BS I had through my parents until 2 years ago as far as out of pocket expenses.

I was on po' people state insurance for about 3 weeks until I got so fed up with the system that I went and put down the $1200 for school insurance. None of my meds were on formulary and the wait times were god awful for everything.

 

[rxlynn]

I'll be starting pharmacy school in June and quitting my current job. I'm a little worried about losing medical benefits for my wife and I.

I was wondering if anyone would be willing to share what kind of benefits options they have as a pharmacy intern. I'm trying to decide where to get a job during school.

Your pharmacy school may require you to carry insurance - mine does. If you don't have insurance through any other method, then you have to pay for the school plan.

In terms of getting benefits as an intern, at CVS (my employer) there is some type of provision for limited health benefits, or you could qualify for the regular if you were working 30 hours or more a week (which presumably you wouldn't be able to do when you were in school full time).

 

[genesis09]

UIC has cheap health insurance, $400 per semester, but you have to use UIC health clinics only. If you have any condition which needs a lot of medication, i.e. asthma, diabetes, you would probably run into trouble because the insurance would only cover up to $2500 of medicine expenses per year. There are no deductibles. Physician visits have a $10 co-pay and that's all. Rxs are $10 for generics, $20 for preferred brands, and $40 for non-formulary drugs. Inpatient hospital care at UIC hospital has 100% coverage.
The nickname of the insurance is CampusScare.

 

[Fogg]

Thanks for all the replies. Good info to keep in mind.

 

[vasilisa]

Does anyone know how much a 3rd year intern makes an hour in Virginia? Thanks.

 

[NormalSaline]

Does anyone know how much a 3rd year intern makes an hour in Virginia? Thanks.

probably about $14/hr