Bay Windows reports trans students at Suffolk University, located in Boston, who are on the university’s health plan will soon “receive medical coverage for hormones and psychological treatment related to transitioning.”

Sharon Yardley, director of Suffolk’s health services, said the university is currently renegotiating its insurance policy, and the two health insurers that have made it to the top of the selection process, their current insurer Nationwide and Aetna, have both agreed to remove the standard exemption in most university health plans for treatment related to gender identity disorder. Yardley expects the university to sign a contract soon, and the new plan will go into effect August 15.

Until a student notified her about the exemption in the university’s current plan Yardley was not even aware of it.

“It was brought to my attention in September by a transgender student on campus that we had an exclusion in our policy [that I hadn’t noticed],” said Yardley. “And once it was brought to my attention I felt it was discriminatory because it names a whole class of people who can’t get hormone benefits.”

The new policy does not remove the exclusion on transgender-related surgeries. It is uncertain if any other universities in Massachusetts offer coverage for hormone treatments and psychological services to transgender students. Yardley said in conversations with colleagues at other schools many were unaware of the exemption, and none said that they had worked to end it.

Brett Genny Beemyn, a board member of the Transgender Law and Policy Institute who monitors transgender-related policies at colleges and universities across the country, said there are few universities anywhere in the country that cover hormone treatments and psychological services for transgender students in their health policies.