Standard 12: Medical Student Health Services, Personal Counseling, and Financial Aid Services

A medical school provides effective student services to all medical students to assist them in achieving the program’s goals for its students. All medical students have the same rights and receive comparable services.

12.1      Financial Aid/Debt Management Counseling/Student Educational Debt

A medical school provides its medical students with effective financial aid and debt management counseling and has mechanisms in place to minimize the impact of direct educational expenses (i.e., tuition, fees, books, supplies) on medical student indebtedness.

12.2      Tuition Refund Policy

A medical school has clear policies for the refund of a medical student’s tuition, fees, and other allowable payments (e.g., payments made for health or disability insurance, parking, housing, and other similar services for which a student may no longer be eligible following withdrawal).

12.3      Personal Counseling/Mental Health/Well-Being Programs

A medical school has in place an effective system of counseling services for its medical students that includes programs to promote their well-being and to facilitate their adjustment to the physical and emotional demands of medical education.

12.4      Student Access to Health Care Services

A medical school provides its medical students with timely access to needed diagnostic, preventive, and therapeutic health services at sites in reasonable proximity to the locations of their required educational experiences and has policies and procedures in place that permit students to be excused from these experiences to seek needed care.

12.5      Non-Involvement of Providers of Student Health Services in Student Assessment/Location of Student Health Records

The health professionals who provide health services, including psychiatric/psychological counseling, to a medical student have no involvement in the academic assessment or promotion of the medical student receiving those services, excluding exceptional circumstances. A medical school ensures that medical student health records are maintained in accordance with legal requirements for security, privacy, confidentiality, and accessibility.

12.6      Student Health and Disability Insurance

A medical school ensures that health insurance and disability insurance are available to each medical student and that health insurance is also available to each medical student’s dependents.

12.7      Immunization Requirements and Monitoring

A medical school follows accepted guidelines in determining immunization requirements for its medical students and monitors students’ compliance with those requirements.

12.8      Student Exposure Policies/Procedures

A medical school has policies in place that effectively address medical student exposure to infectious and environmental hazards, including the following:

• The education of medical students about methods of prevention
• The procedures for care and treatment after exposure, including a definition of financial responsibility
• The effects of infectious and environmental disease or disability on medical student learning activities

All registered medical students (including visiting students) are informed of these policies before undertaking any educational activities that would place them at risk.

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