International students and scholars who were enrolled in the UConn Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP) at any point during 2019 may have received an email from Wellfleet Student with the subject line Important Student Health Insurance 1095-B Information. Wellfleet is the company that provides your insurance coverage under the UConn SHIP. This email is not spam or a scam. Many international students have reported receiving this email, and they have been confused by the message content.

If you received this message from Wellfleet, it means they don’t have your current Social Security Number information, and they would like to have this number to issue your tax form 1095-B (since the SSN is a tax ID number). The 1095-B is issued by the insurance company to document your health insurance coverage. When you file a U.S. tax return, you may or may not be required to demonstrate that you had health insurance using this form.

You may provide your SSN to the health insurance company by completing the W-9 tax form and mailing it to the address in the email. If you do not have a Social Security Number, or if you choose to not provide this to Wellfleet, the tax form 1095-B will still be mailed to you. If you are filing a U.S. tax return because you had taxable income in 2019, then save the 1095-B form for your tax records. If you are not filing a U.S. tax return because you did not have taxable income in 2019, we still advise you to save this form for your records.

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