Employee Health Insurance

State Employee Health Plan

KU Human Resource Management has a lot of information for new employees, which include health benefits.

Individuals who are eligible for KU employee insurance must enroll within 30 days from your first day of work. Please contact the Benefits Office for help in applying for the State Employee Health Plan.  Your health insurance coverage should begin your first day of work. However, this will require that you complete on-boarding, which requires you to have a SSN. It may take you several days, or weeks to obtain a SSN.

J Visa Holder Employees

The J visa requires that you have health insurance for the entire duration you are in the United States. Since your state employee health insurance will not begin immediately, you will need to purchase a temporary health insurance policy to cover the gap.

KU employees who are using a J visa should know that the KU employee insurance does not meet all the U.S. Department of State minimum insurance requirements. This is because this insurance does not include evacuation or repatriation.  Therefore scholars and their dependents covered by KU employee insurance are also required to be covered by a separate Emergency Evacuation/Repatriation insurance plan. Most scholars purchase this additional insurance through the BETiNS insurance or United Healthcare Global Emergency Services (pdf) listed in the Private Insurance Plan section.

J-1 Scholars - only Plan J meets your immigration requirements. When you are choosing your policy type in your Member Access Portal, please choose plan J. If you choose a different plan, then you will need to buy additional insurance that meets all US Department of State health insurance requirements.