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Friday, November 08, 2019
Highmark Health and Carnegie Mellon University expand longstanding relationship with new building to address student well-being
www.cmu.edu/news: Highmark Health and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) today announced a $35 million grant from Highmark Inc. to support the construction of a new student health, wellness and athletics center at CMU. The 160,000-square-foot building will, for the first time, unite critical student well-being services under one roof on the university's Pittsburgh campus.
Ehh..I'm not so sure how I feel about this. I understand that funding is an important aspect of creating new initiatives, but judging by the cost of our tuition, CMU has enough money. So I'm not sure how I feel about Highmark having a monopoly on student healthcare. I don't use university healthcare, so will I be able to use this facility? I just don't like the idea of one healthcare company being the sole funder of this facility. I am especially uncomfortable with this considering the state of our current health and wellness programs. The other day I called CAPS to set up an appointment and I was on hold for almost ten minutes. So, why doesn't this money go to expanding the programs we already have? Places like CAPS clearly need more staff, so we should just fix the problem rather than putting a $35 million band-aid on it. I respect what they're trying to do. A new workout facility is a great idea, but I don't know if more "positive self-care activities" are the solution to our ongoing mental health issues as a student body.
I share the same doubt with Elena which is about inviting an enterprise into the campus. It also means that Highmark Health will have a major involvement to our health and wellness care system. I will not consider it as an impact this early on, but certainly there will be some shifting of our benefits from campus health care to this enterprise that share the best health -related building with and in Carnegie Mellon University. However, there is still some positive thoughts I can figure on this announcement. We are now missing a modern facility that dedicate solely to health care on the campus, and medication is not what Carnegie is known for. Therefore bringing a professional team is still an viable option, along with the funding. For now I feel it is acceptable to stand by and keep an eye on this ongoing project, and be ready pushing it toward where it should be when things go wrong.
I’m skeptical anytime a major company wants to “partner” with a university. In this case it appears that Highmark will dominate life at CMU in terms of health and wellness. There are several things that I look at with this and worry. Principle among them is student health insurance which is currently Aetna. Highmark is a BlueCrossBlueShield company and while Highmark currently has an agreement in place with UPMC, my concern is that if the insurance plan changes, does that change access to my current doctor who is not with student health? While the university is toting this as a wonderful partnership, I wanna see the meat of the agreement. I want to know as a student that I am not going to be forced into a student health plan that becomes more costly (adding things like deductibles) and reduces choices that I want to make as part of my overall health plan. It’s one thing if a company gives money to help fund proposed changes but it becomes something completely different when, with that gift, strings get attached which can cause other aspects to suffer.
While I agree with the comments before me about not wanting Highmark to monopolize the student healthcare at CMU, I also think the addition of this building will allow for the current wellness initiatives on campus to be expanded upon and fixed, and provide a space for more beneficial work towards CMU’s overall wellness to be actually acknowledged. “The state-of-the-art facility will accelerate Carnegie Mellon’s vision to support students in practicing positive self-care behavior and maintaining their physical and psychological well-being as they pursue a life-changing education. The integrated approach is part of the university’s model for assisting students to develop their whole selves through initiatives inside and outside of the classroom.” This sounds like a great goal for CMU, to help our students, and if bringing in Highmark Health can help us attain these initiatives and benefit our student body in a stronger way, I think we should welcome it, but also be cautious to the monopolization that could result.
4 comments:
Ehh..I'm not so sure how I feel about this. I understand that funding is an important aspect of creating new initiatives, but judging by the cost of our tuition, CMU has enough money. So I'm not sure how I feel about Highmark having a monopoly on student healthcare. I don't use university healthcare, so will I be able to use this facility? I just don't like the idea of one healthcare company being the sole funder of this facility. I am especially uncomfortable with this considering the state of our current health and wellness programs. The other day I called CAPS to set up an appointment and I was on hold for almost ten minutes. So, why doesn't this money go to expanding the programs we already have? Places like CAPS clearly need more staff, so we should just fix the problem rather than putting a $35 million band-aid on it. I respect what they're trying to do. A new workout facility is a great idea, but I don't know if more "positive self-care activities" are the solution to our ongoing mental health issues as a student body.
I share the same doubt with Elena which is about inviting an enterprise into the campus. It also means that Highmark Health will have a major involvement to our health and wellness care system. I will not consider it as an impact this early on, but certainly there will be some shifting of our benefits from campus health care to this enterprise that share the best health -related building with and in Carnegie Mellon University. However, there is still some positive thoughts I can figure on this announcement. We are now missing a modern facility that dedicate solely to health care on the campus, and medication is not what Carnegie is known for. Therefore bringing a professional team is still an viable option, along with the funding. For now I feel it is acceptable to stand by and keep an eye on this ongoing project, and be ready pushing it toward where it should be when things go wrong.
I’m skeptical anytime a major company wants to “partner” with a university. In this case it appears that Highmark will dominate life at CMU in terms of health and wellness. There are several things that I look at with this and worry. Principle among them is student health insurance which is currently Aetna. Highmark is a BlueCrossBlueShield company and while Highmark currently has an agreement in place with UPMC, my concern is that if the insurance plan changes, does that change access to my current doctor who is not with student health? While the university is toting this as a wonderful partnership, I wanna see the meat of the agreement. I want to know as a student that I am not going to be forced into a student health plan that becomes more costly (adding things like deductibles) and reduces choices that I want to make as part of my overall health plan. It’s one thing if a company gives money to help fund proposed changes but it becomes something completely different when, with that gift, strings get attached which can cause other aspects to suffer.
While I agree with the comments before me about not wanting Highmark to monopolize the student healthcare at CMU, I also think the addition of this building will allow for the current wellness initiatives on campus to be expanded upon and fixed, and provide a space for more beneficial work towards CMU’s overall wellness to be actually acknowledged. “The state-of-the-art facility will accelerate Carnegie Mellon’s vision to support students in practicing positive self-care behavior and maintaining their physical and psychological well-being as they pursue a life-changing education. The integrated approach is part of the university’s model for assisting students to develop their whole selves through initiatives inside and outside of the classroom.” This sounds like a great goal for CMU, to help our students, and if bringing in Highmark Health can help us attain these initiatives and benefit our student body in a stronger way, I think we should welcome it, but also be cautious to the monopolization that could result.
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