Aetna, the company with which Cornell contracts for student health insurance, will reimburse both active and former Cornell students more than $155,000 in faulty health insurance claims, University officials said yesterday. This sum represents only a portion of the more than $5 million in claims that the company will pay to over 73,000 students at over 200 colleges nationwide as part of an agreement announced Tuesday by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
Between 1998 and April 1, 2008, Aetna Student Health mishandled 4,114 insurance claims filed by 1,626 Cornell students, according to University Press Relations Officer Joe Schwartz. During this period, the company reimbursed students for less money than they were entitled to, Cuomo’s office said in a statement.