D3 post injury rehab

My son was a freshman at a D3 last year and suffered a season ending injury (actually injured it in the off-season during weight training....we think).  Anyway, the training staff there wasn't very aggressive in getting the proper diagnosis and tried to treat it in house.  After awhile, I finally stepped in and got him to a good ortho doc who specialized in shoulder injuries and ordered an arthrogram (sp?).  Anyway, it showed he had two small labral tears in his right shoulder.  That dr. hooked him up with a physical therapist who also specialized in throwing injuries and got him on a program to strengthen the shoulder.  He is still rehabbing and has started his throwing program.  Right now, he is up to 150 feet at about 75% velocity (though I think he is throwing harder than that when we throw) and has not had any pain.  I am hopeful he will be able to play again without having to get surgery. 

The school was very nice about it and gave me their insurance information to file a claim for any of our expenses.  Basically, the way they are set up (and perhaps this is common)...we use our primary insurance, and then anything our insurance doesn't cover, the school's insurance will.

One thing I learned, that I wish I had known sooner, is that with our insurance (BC/BS) you can apply for guest memberships in another network area.  So while your kid is away from home and out of your home health coverage network, he can get a guest membership in the health network where his school is located and pay "in-network" prices for doctors, therapists, etc.  It makes it much easier to coordinate care.

Hope this helps.

Here's an article that might shed a little light into the situation as a whole. I know there's likely to be a huge difference between Alabama and a lot of schools. But still interesting... https://www.al.com/alabamafoot...hind_the_scenes.html

Now let me offer my perspective as an Athletic Trainer. For starters, "it depends." There are some D3 schools who have a single AT for numerous sports who simply do not have the time to work with athletes like they'd like to. There are other D3 schools who have better resources than a lot of D1 schools.

Many colleges (and some high schools) are going to carry a secondary accident insurance policy. That means that your son's insurance (your health insurance) acts as a primary source of insurance, while the school's insurance kicks in after that for qualified injuries. I believe the NCAA now allows schools to determine what expenses the school and its insurance will pay. The NCAA used to say only sport related injuries, but they've loosened those regulations. 

I spent a summer interning at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. It's a D3 school. I did my undergrad at Southeast Missouri State. It's a (small) D1 school. UWW had better resources in so many ways than SEMO did. Facilities were nicer, AT staff was the same size, etc.

There are also some high schools who would rival a lot of smaller colleges as far as resources go. I'd like to think that our sports medicine department is one of those. We have a pretty nice budget and we provide many services you probably wouldn't expect at the high school level. We also carry a secondary insurance policy, which really helps our kids and their parents.