Parents and Guardians
Harvard University Health Services supports the health and wellbeing of students as they enter adulthood.
Our multi-specialty medical practice is open to all students enrolled in the Harvard University Student Health Program regardless of their insurance. For no additional cost, students have access to primary care, urgent care, and mental health care at our on-campus clinics.
As the semesters fly by—more quickly than you will imagine—refer to this page and use it as a guide to support your student’s health needs. Thank you for entrusting us with their care.
The Student Health Fee funds access to a variety of services to all students, including primary care, urgent care, and counseling and mental health care at HUHS for no additional cost. This fee does not provide coverage for any health care services received outside of HUHS and is not considered an insurance policy.
Can the Student Health Fee be waived?
The Student Health Fee is required for the large majority of students as part of school registration. To be eligible to waive the Student Health Fee, the student must be:
- A traveling scholar/study abroad student studying outside the country
- Enrolled as a half-time or less student, and must have also waived the Student Health Insurance Plan
- A non-resident student who resides outside of Massachusetts and has no activities on campus for the entire term
- An enrolled member of the Harvard University Group Health Plan
- A student on active military duty and prohibited from receiving health care from any facility other than Hanscom Air Force Base (requires an active duty attestation form)
Harvard College and Harvard University Health Services strive to treat our college students as the young adults they are. We are mindful that they need to practice autonomous decision-making and self-care. Having the privilege of keeping medical information private is one of many autonomous rights of an adult afforded to Harvard College students. We believe that accepting blanket medical record authorizations to allow parents to access a student’s records, signed at or near the time a student is entering college, reinforces dependency, not independent decision-making. This is not to say that medical privacy is valued above all others. Certainly, we accept authorizations to share medical information made at the time, identifying specific records and specific people or entities. Also, if our medical professionals have reason to determine that a patient is a danger to themselves or others, the law permits disclosure to anyone who may be able to help. This includes parents as well as others.
Medical privacy laws are designed to encourage people to access health care. Few people would seek care if they believed their medical records would be available for others to see. College students are a hard-to-reach population, if only because they may not have developed a habit of seeking medical care independently. This is why HUHS makes great efforts to encourage them to come to HUHS by sending surveys to first-year students, distributing flyers in housing, and visiting dining halls, fairs, and other gatherings. It is also the case that college students seek care for issues that are particularly private (birth control, STIs, unwanted pregnancies, substance and alcohol abuse and their associated injuries, depression, and anxiety). Without a promise of medical privacy, we believe many of these conditions/situations would go untreated, either entirely or until the conditions have worsened unnecessarily. Thus, HUHS does not accept blanket medical record authorizations from students because we believe they are a barrier to care.
Under Massachusetts law, individuals who are 18 or older have the right to make their own medical decisions and to make decisions about the privacy of their medical records. Students under the age of 18, but living away from home at college, usually are considered "mature minors" under Massachusetts law, which also gives them the legal standing to make their own decisions about care and privacy. Thus, in general, HUHS will treat students as adults and address issues of concern directly with them. It is students' responsibility to notify their families of illnesses or injuries, except in the rare situation where students have lost the capacity to make or communicate their medical choices, in which case, next-of-kin will be consulted. In a non-emergency situation, however, HUHS will only respond to questions from family members or others about a specific visit or illness when the student has given us contemporaneous permission, usually in writing, to do so. Waivers can be revoked by a patient at any time, so putting in place an advance waiver does not allow for family notification because students can simply revoke the waiver.
For parents who have concerns about situations in which their child may be in distress and seek information on the student's medical or mental health status, we want you to know that Harvard University Health Services works very closely with the College when it comes to protecting the student and others in the community from harm. In the rare instance in which a student's medical or mental health status poses a danger to the student or a threat to others in the community, HUHS professional staff may disclose any relevant information to any appropriate person, including College officials and parents, for the purpose of protecting the student, others, or the community from harm.