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Your Health is Important

UC Merced offers a variety of services for all students, including graduate and professional students.  Most of these services are offered by the following departments:

Keep in mind that these are on-campus resources.  UC Merced also has partnerships with other companies to provide students, faculty, and staff access to other services at little to no extra charge.  See what apps are out there.

Below are some of the services that the campus provides:


Student Health Center 

The mission of Health Services is to help each student strive for maximum physical and emotional health while pursuing their academic and personal goals at UC Merced. Health Services is committed to providing the highest quality primary health care, in combination with health education and wellness promotion through caring, accessible and affordable services.  Most of these services are offered as confidential resources depending on your insurance.  Learn more about your rights and responsibilities as a patient.

The Student Health Center is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday except on university holidays and weekends.  To schedule an appointment with the Student Health Center call 209-228-2273.  The first scheduled appointment is at 8:20 a.m. and the last appointment is at 4 p.m.

This place can be found on the second floor of the new Health & Athletics Center on Champion Way near the recreation fields.  You are strongly encouraged to call in advance before seeing health center staff in order to minimize the flow of traffic.

Learn more about the services of the Health Center.  For UC Merced students, faculty, and staff, you can find more information about the specific services and requirements to fulfill at https://myhealth.ucmerced.edu/.

Insurance at UC Merced

The UC SHIP logo

According to UCOP, the University of California system requires all students to have major medical insurance.  As part of this resolution, all UC Merced students have the option to apply for insurance through UC SHIP.  The following rates of UC SHIP for the current academic year can be found here.  If you choose to opt out of UC SHIP, you will need to sign a waiver showing that your insurance covers all the major requirements.  Keep in mind that all approved waiver submissions will be audited.

Students signed up through UC SHIP can print their insurance cards using by the following procedures listed here.  Please note that the university no longer mails insurance cards, and so this will have to be done online through the insurance providers.

What insurance companies are part of UC SHIP?

Medical: Anthem Blue Cross (Benefits)

As of 20-21, the out-of-pocket limits per year for enrollees are $3,000 / person or $6,000 / family for in-network providers, and $6,000 / person or $12,000 / family for out-of-network providers.  This plan provides the required minimum essential coverage.

Vision: Blue View Vision Insight (Benefits)

Most eyeglasses costs are covered up to a limit per benefit year, then enrollees will have to pay for a fraction of the costs that exceed this limit.  For in-network providers, up to $120 are covered for lenses without additional out-of-pocket costs.  Once this limit is exceeded, enrollees will have to pay a fraction of the remaining costs, while the rest is covered by the plan.

Pharmacy: OptumRx (Benefits)

As of 20-21, your share of prescription drug costs count toward the out-of-pocket limit of your medical insurance. 

Dental: Delta Dental (Benefits)

UC SHIP covers up to $1,000 in dental services per year.  Please note that basic and major dental services slightly differently according to UCOP.  If you are interested in learning about the types of dentistry specializations in these categories, NewMouth is a site that covers each specialty in detail.

 

Flu Shot Clinics

During the Fall semester, the Student Health Center will be holding free influenza vaccine clinics for students twice per week by appointment only.  Drive-up clinics are every Tuesday from 1-4pm at the Bellevue parking lot.  Walk-up clinics are every Friday from 8am-12pm outside on Champion way between the Student Health Center and the recreations fields.  Appointments can be made through your MyHealth portal.

More information can be found at https://health.ucmerced.edu.


Counseling and Psychological Services

This is a confidential resource that provides counseling to registered students free of charge.  The CAPS office is open weekdays from 8am to 4:30pm, and can be found on the first floor of the H. Rajender Reddy Health Center in front of the Gallo Recreation Center.

At this time all drop-ins will be done over the phone.  To get in contact with CAPS please call (209) 228-4266.  All other services including counseling and group sessions will be done remotely over Zoom.

Support Groups

CAPS offers support groups every semester that meet on a weekly or biweekly basis.

The International Student Support Group will be meeting every other Wednesday from 3-4pm starting February 3rd.  This is open to all current and incoming students.  Dr. Shao Li will be facilitating the group.

The Graduate Student Support Group will be meeting every Thursday from 4-5pm starting February 4th.  This is open to all current and incoming graduate students.  Dr. Shao Li will be facilitating the group.

Call (209) 228-4266 or head to the CAPS website to learn more about other groups

 


Health Promotion 

This department is in charge of promoting most the health related events on campus, which are available to all students.  A few of their programs can be found here, which looks at four types of Health & Well-being topics.

Rest & Relaxation Hotspots

Health Promotion has sections on campus (and a couple off campus) that are useful spaces for students to take naps, or relax and enjoy the view of the great outdoors!  See this map of Relaxation Hotspots.  

 

Relaxation Station

Health Promotion also has a private space for students to focus on meditation and help alleviate stress and anxiety through a guided program.  Due to COVID-19 restrictions the relaxation station is closed until further notice.

 


Wellness Apps

We want to emphasize again that as a graduate student, and as a person, your health is important!  UC Merced has several partnerships with many organizations in order to expand access to health resources that can be accessed from anywhere.  Below are some of these useful apps you can use anytime from wherever you are comfortable.

 

Calm

All students faculty and staff have a free premium subscription to the Calm app.  Listen to relaxing tunes and short stories from your computer or mobile device while you work.  All you need to do is log in with your UC Merced email.  To learn how to sign up, click here, and remember to download the app on Google Play or the App Store for listening on the go.

 

TAO Connect

TAO logo

This service provides a set of education modules, assessments, interactive tools, and daily logs.  As of Fall 2019, all UC Merced students are able to get a free subscription to this service.  Learn more about this service and the app at taoconnect.com.

 

WellTrack

WellTrack logo

This app is a free service for all UC Merced students that provides confidential self-guided tools and resources to help manage stress, anxiety, and depression.  Login at https://ucmerced.welltrack.com.

Did you find any health resources on campus that are not mentioned here?  Please let us know by using this form.