University officials will examine billing students’ health insurance companies for services provided through Hudson Health Center, with a goal of bringing in an additional $1.38 million in revenue.

Billing insurance companies in the past has been too big of a burden to make it a fiscally viable option to Ohio University because of staffing and requirements, university officials said.

“It sounds really simple to bill insurance companies, but even if we make that decision tomorrow based off of a professional’s view, it’s going to take more manpower, and we have to contact and be aware of all the insurance companies,” said Kent Smith, vice president for Student Affairs.

OU President Roderick McDavis suggested the measure as part of the proposed budget he presented to Budget Planning Council last week. He will show the budget to the Board of Trustees at its Friday meeting.

“Right now this is an option being discussed but not a decision that’s being made,” said Terry Hogan, dean of students.

About 65 percent of Student Health Services is funded through student general fee revenue, and the remaining 35 percent comes through fees collected from students for services, Hogan said. The department is budgeted about $1.8 million from the general fee in 2007, about $355,000 less than it was budgeted in 2006.

“Historically, there has been sufficient funding to support the health service operations without (billing insurance companies),” Hogan said. “The ability of a place like OU to develop and maintain a system for billing insurance companies represents a sizable investment. As the times and technology change, there may be more cost effective ways of doing it.”

The additional revenue could help offset the university’s $8.55 million budget deficit, but the university is also discussing increasing and improving the services offered through Hudson, Smith said.

“We’re in a rural community, so we need to make sure we have enough services available to students and that we can do that to the best of our ability and also do that in tough fiscal times,” he said. “If we bill the insurance companies, we may be able to improve the services we offer, and in addition, generate additional revenue that would help us do other things that would meet other pressing needs of students.”

Hogan and Smith are creating a task force to review how the university currently delivers health services and will look to gather student input before the end of the year.

“This could very easily be a six-month-to-year project,” Smith said. “This won’t be something that will be implemented in the fall. It’s long term.”

Neither Smith nor Hogan knew the effects students would encounter.

“We’re working to understand the implications of a decision like this, to make sure it doesn’t play out with unintended consequences,” Hogan said.