By Marissa Warden

Aetna Student Health, the student insurance provider for Macalester, underpaid students receiving out-of-network health care by more than $5-million over the last decade. New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo landed a settlement with the insurer in February according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Denise Ward, Assistant Dean for Student Services said that Macalester has not filed a lawsuit against Aetna. She said in an email that the college has “not heard anything other than an acknowledgement of the agreement and that they would be working with the affected claimants.”

Aetna has agreed to pay the students or their doctors more than $5.1-million, plus interest and penalties according to the Chronicle. This concludes an investigation by Cuomo into the use of outdated reimbursement rates by an Aetna Student Health, formerly known as Chickering Student Health, from 1998 to 2008. Students at more than 200 colleges are covered by the settlement.

The Aetna Student Health homepage commented on the settlement, saying they wanted to make their clients aware that they are “reprocessing a percentage of our claims and will be reaching out to current and former students to make additional payments for these claims.”

Letters will be sent by Aetna directly to the students to determine if the payment is due to the student or the provider.

“We have had a positive working relationship with Aetna Student Health,” Ward said, “with few complaints from students regarding claims/coverage for the past year and a half that we have worked with them.