The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai requires degree-seeking students to maintain continuous comprehensive health insurance throughout each period of enrollment. This requirement reflects the School’s commitment to ensuring that students have access to medical care that may result from unexpected illness, injury, or hospitalization during their enrollment. Students may satisfy this requirement by enrolling in the ISMMS Aetna Student Health Plan or by demonstrating that they are covered by another comprehensive health insurance plan that meets the School's minimum standards. Students who choose to use alternative coverage are responsible for submitting documentation that verifies their eligibility for a waiver before the applicable deadline. In additional, optional dental and vision plans are also available for students. The current insurance plan fees are detailed in the Cost of Attendence Information provided on the Student Financial Services website.
New Student Open Enrollment
New students receive insurance information, including enrollment and waiver instructions, at the time of matriculation. The insurance enrollment/waiver process must be completed within the first 2 weeks of matriculation.
Annual Open Enrollment
The open enrollment period is held annually during the first two weeks of June. The open enrollment period allows students to adjust their insurance enrollment options effective with the new academic year (July 1st). Student receive instructions via email on how to complete the open enrollment process, prior to and during this period, as well as information on the new plan fees for the new academic year. Once the annual enrollment period is over, students will not be able to change their insurance selections (i.e. add or remove enrollment) until the next annual enrollment period, unless they experience a qualified life event.
Qualifying Events
If a student experiences a qualifying life event, they are permitted to make benefits changes within 31 days of the event(s). These events include changes in status, such as marriage, birth or adoption of a child, divorce, a spouse's termination from an insurance plan, etc. Turning 26 years of age also qualifies as a life event, as students will have aged out of their parents’ health insurance plan coverage. Qualifying events can be addressed outside of the open enrollment period throughout the year. Students are able to submit a qualifying life event request by completing the Qualifying Life Event Request Form. These requests are submitted to the Mount Sinai Benefits Office for review and approval.
Student Health Plan Information
The ISMMS Student Health Plan is underwritten by Aetna for medical coverage and United Health Care for vision and dental coverage. Access to plan documents are provided to students during their initial enrollment as well as during the Open Enrollment Period. Current plan documents are available for review at this secure location: Student Insurance Documents_2026-27.
Mailing Address Changes
Sinai Cloud is the system of record for insurance enrollment. Students must ensure that their mailing address is up-to-date in Sinai Cloud so that insurance communications (i.e. claim payments) are correctly delivered to them by the insurance companies.
Medical Student Long-Term Disability Insurance
The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) mandates that disability insurance coverage be made available to medical students during their period of enrollment. ISMMS provides a long-term disability (LTD) insurance policy to its medical students through MedPlusAdvantage. Information is provided annually to medical students regarding their coverage.