By Matt Collette
Ashly Pietras went to University Health and Counseling Services (UHCS) earlier this semester to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). She thought she’d leave knowing more about her health, but she didn’t even make it to the waiting room.
Because Pietras didn’t have any symptoms, UHCS wouldn’t see her since her insurance wouldn’t pay for STD tests if she didn’t have any symptoms.
She said she thought that since she was insured it wouldn’t be a problem. She eventually managed to get an appointment and met with a nurse, but she was again told that she wouldn’t be tested without symptoms.
“I was literally in the doctor’s office and they asked me to leave,” she said.
Insurance benefits are always changing, and most won’t authorize payment if a patient doesn’t have symptoms, said Dr. Gairy Hall, who works in UHCS.
“There is a disconnect in this country between what we want to do as physicians and what insurance would be willing to pay,” he said.
Hall also said that while students may want to be tested for all STDs, there is no one test that checks for all diseases. Knowing a patient’s symptoms allows a doctor, nurse or clinician to choose an appropriate test. “They will do [necessary] testing once a year, when a woman is having a Pap smear,” Hall said.
“It’s not that we don’t want to test students, we just don’t want them to have to pay for everything we test them for,” Hall said.
Many people may not have noticeable symptoms, though they still might be infected and may be able to infect their sexual partners.
“The bigger issue is that there are some STDs that are asymptomatic,” said Carol O’Connor, a nursing professor.
In most circumstances, UHCS will not test for HIV because most insurers will not pay for the test. But O’Connor said anyone who has had unprotected sex should be tested.
“If they’re concerned about having unprotected sex, they should be tested for HIV, whether they have symptoms or not,” she said.
When a patient comes in seeking testing, medical professionals should take advantage of the opportunity to talk to the patient about sexual behavior and offer counseling, which the university, offers for free, O’Connor said.
“If someone’s having unprotected sex, that’s a red flag. You’d want to see that person, to talk about why that happened, what they could do to reduce that risk going forward,” she said.
She said turning away a patient could lead to more problems down the road, especially since students concerned about their sexual health may have further issues to discuss with a professional.
“There’s a lot of things that could be going on with a young person, and to turn them away and say we won’t test you is dangerous,” O’Connor said. “As a nurse, I would be concerned about what was going on with them, and sit down and talk to them.”
When UHCS cannot provide testing, they give the student a list of nearby locations for free testing and counseling. It recommends the Fenway Community Health Center, which is located at 7 Haviland St., near Berklee College of Music, which offers free, confidential, same-day testing.
Pietras said she received the list of locations that provide testing, but hasn’t yet been to any of the off-campus locations. She said the current STD testing policy “doesn’t make sense” and that Northeastern should be able to provide testing to students, regardless of whether or not they have symptoms, especially if some places are able to offer free testing.
