An email from Academic HealthPlans (AHP) to students on Monday told them they had been enrolled in Iowa State’s Student Health Insurance Plan and successfully paid $1,435 for coverage through July.
The email included a statement with a unique order ID and a one-time payment receipt through the bursar.
The Student & Scholar Health Insurance Program (SSHIP) website posted an update Monday afternoon that stated the program is aware of the emails and is working with the “enrollment vendor to correct and reverse this action.”
The university’s spokesperson, Angie Hunt, told the Daily over email that the message was “mistakenly sent to several students” and that Iowa State is working with AHP to “correct this error and remove any potential charges from student U-bills.”
Hunt stated it was unclear exactly how many students were impacted. Most of the Daily’s journalists – at least 37 – received the email.
Additionally, student information was not compromised in creating the unique order IDs, according to Hunt.
“If you are NOT an International Student, Graduate Assistant, Visiting Scholar or another group who is not currently on our plan or required to be on our plan, your Spring/Summer enrollment will be reversed. Please watch your iastate email for a communication if this has affected you,” the update stated.
Next to the statement is an “Email SSHIP” button that leads to a malfunctioning Outlook page, seemingly leaving users in a neverending refresh page loop. The button was not working at least as of 1:30 p.m. Monday and still did not work as of the publication of this article.
Hunt directed students with questions to email [email protected].
In attempting to reach the SSHIP for comment, the Daily left a voicemail Monday afternoon for the intended recipient of the help button, Holly Konz, a university human resources benefits specialist, and did not receive a response.
The email appeared to be removed from inboxes over three hours after receiving it, but the university’s chief information security officer, Rich Tener, did not respond to a request to confirm the removal. He previously told the Daily in 2023 regarding phishing email scams that his department tries “to delete the email from everyone’s inbox as fast as we can.”
