Student Loan Blog : Benjamin Lawsky

New York AG Examines Colleges’ Relationships With Health Insurers

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:30:00 GMT

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is investigating the relationships between colleges and the health insurance companies they do business with just two years after he launched a similar investigation that uncovered conflicts of interest between some colleges and student loan companies, The New York Times reports (“Cuomo Investigating Colleges’ Deals With Health Insurers,” Nov. 17, 2008).

Investigators will focus on determining if schools adequately disclose the policy terms and costs of their school-sponsored health insurance plans to their students, as well as whether or not insurers offer schools a monetary incentive to require that their students buy health insurance through a particular provider.

In an e-mail message, Benjamin Lawsky, special assistant to the attorney general, wrote “We are primarily focused on whether insurance companies are paying schools to push students into health coverage they don’t really need and shouldn’t really want.”

“With students and their families being financially squeezed at every turn,” he added, “colleges must ensure that they are looking out for students’ best interest first and foremost as opposed to their own financial bottom line.”

Cuomo has requested health insurance–related documents from six State University of New York schools — Binghamton, Buffalo State, Oswego, Purchase, Stony Brook, and the University at Buffalo. Investigators have asked to see copies of the schools’ requests for proposals from insurers, insurance contracts, and the information given to students about the health plans available to them, as well as statistics on the health insurance premiums paid by students.

Four institutions, Georgetown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, and Sarah Lawrence College, said they had received subpoenas.

Parents have complained that some schools require students to purchase school-sponsored health insurance, even though the student is already insured under a family health insurance policy, said James Boyle, president of College Parents of America, an association of parents of college students.

Although “the vast majority of college students” are covered under their parent’s health insurance, most campus health centers don’t accept insurance plans that aren’t affiliated with the school, Boyle added.

“Instead,” he said, “some schools force the student, as a condition of enrollment, to purchase health insurance policies offered by the school.”

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Committee Discusses Ways to Reduce College Students’ Credit Card Misuse

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:24:00 GMT

During testimony before the House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, Benjamin Lawsky, deputy counselor to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, said predatory credit-card companies are taking advantage of college students (The Chronicle of Higher Education, “Cuomo Hopes to Have Investigation of Colleges’ Credit-Card Deals Finished by Fall,” June 26, 2008).

Credit card companies, Lawsky contends, offer free gifts to students when they apply for credit cards and the companies often withhold important information about the cards’ payment requirements and interest rates.

Kenneth Clayton, managing director of the American Bankers Association Card Policy Council, countered that students need to be more responsible credit card users. “Credit-card companies don’t give students an open check,” Clayton said.

Lawsky’s and Clayton’s comments were made before the consumer-credit subcommittee, which met June 26 to talk about ways to help students avoid credit-card debt and misuse. Options discussed during the hearing included adding a cosigner option, setting uniform standards for underwriting credit, and limiting exclusivity agreements between colleges and the companies that issue credit-cards.

Cuomo’s office expects to complete its investigation this fall into possible conflicts of interest between credit-card companies and the college officials who do business with them.

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Cuomo to Make Investigation into Colleges’ Credit-Card Deals Public

Student Loan Girl — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 01:05:00 GMT

The results of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s investigation into the relationship between colleges with co-branded credit cards and the banks that issue them are expected to be released within the next two months.

Benjamin Lawsky, Cuomo’s deputy counsel, made the announcement about the soon-to-be public results during an education forum on the topic “Higher Ed Governance: Stewardship or Sham?” held Wednesday at the American Enterprise Institute, according to an article by JJ Hermes in The Chronicle of Higher Education (“Cuomo Aid Says Investigation Into Colleges’ Credit-Card Deals Will Soon Be Public,” April 16, 2008).

Lawsky acknowledged that campus administrators are like “sitting ducks” to credit card and student loan companies seeking some form of preferred status as a way of generating business.

“I think people will be shocked at some of these arrangements,” Lawsky told forum attendees.

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