Changes & Life Events

Learn more about qualifying life events, making changes to your benefits program, and making adjustments to your personal information.

A change in your personal or work life can impact your benefit elections, and Human Resource Management is ready to help you navigate the change process.

Home Address Changes

Changes to your home address can be made through HR/Pay. Please see View/Edit your personal information summary.

Tax Withholding Changes

Changes to your allowances or exemptions for federal taxes can be made through HR/Pay. For additional information please visit the Payroll website.

Qualifying Life Events

Changes in family status can be considered as an IRS Qualifying Life Event which allows you to make changes to your benefits such as applying for additional optional group life insurance or modifying your existing State Employee Health Plan elections. Family status changes include the following:

Marriage
Divorce
Birth
Adoption
Death
Spouse/dependent loss of other health insurance coverage
Gain or loss of legal custody of a dependent

If you experience any of the above family status changes, please review the steps below to make the necessary changes related to your health benefit elections.

Please review the plans below and follow the guidelines to make changes.

Health Insurance

If you experience a family status change or qualifying event and you are covered by the State Employee Health Plan (SEHP), you have 30 calendar days from the date of your family status change or qualifying event to make the change directly in MAP, using the "Mid-Year Benefit Changes" tab and upload any required documentation to support the change (i.e., a marriage license, birth certificate, etc.) If you do not take timely action, or if you do not provide the required supporting documentation, the SEHP will deny your change request. Please contact the Benefits Office (benefits@ku.edu or 785-864-7402) if you have any questions or need assistance.

For mid-year changes MAP instructions, please visit Mid Year Changes Step-by-Step Guide

If you make changes to dependent coverage, you will need to provide specific instructions in the Request Note box about whether the dependent(s) will keep or be removed from medical, dental and/or Avesis Vision coverage.

If you add a newborn to coverage, you will need to provide a Social Security Number. Until you receive the actual SSN, you can use the number 777-77-7777 when adding family member information in MAP.

Note: Employees who are newly eligible for benefit plans offered by the State Employee Health Plan (SEHP), or who make changes in coverage because of life events, may see a delay from the time they enroll or initiate a change in MAP to when the premium is deduced from their paychecks. Premium changes will be reflected on paychecks after the SEHP processes the enrollment or change and sends that information to KU.

As employees generally have 30 days in which to initially enroll or to request a change because of a life event, the premium change could be retroactive and result in multiple premiums deducted from a paycheck.
If the retroactive premium adjustment will be greater than $500, the Benefits Office will send an email to inform you.
To minimize retroactive premium deductions, you are encouraged to enroll or make mid-year changes as early in the 30 day period as possible.

Flexible Spending Accounts

If you are participating in a health care and/or dependent care flexible spending account (FSA), you have 30 calendar days from the date of the qualifying life event to make the change directly in MAP, using the "Mid-Year Benefit Changes" tab and upload any required documentation to support the change. The election changes must be consistent with the family status change event. If you do not take timely action, or if you do not provide the required supporting documentation, the SEHP will deny your change request. Please contact the Benefits Office (benefits@ku.edu or 785-864-7402) if you have any questions or need assistance.

Voluntary Retirement Plans

KPERS 457 Plan Participants: Please contact the plan at 800-232-0024 and select the appropriate prompts. A representative will guide you through the change process.
KBOR 403(b) Plan Participants: Contact an approved plan representative who can assist you with making changes to your plan.

Basic Life Insurance Plans

You can update beneficiary designation(s) at any time, including when family status changes occur. Complete and submit the appropriate form from below to the Benefits office by either fax to 785-864-5790 or campus mail addressed to "Human Resources - Benefits":

KBOR Mandatory Retirement Plan Participants: Download and complete KPERS Form 7/99A (pdf) to change beneficiaries you have designated for your basic group life insurance coverage. Contact your KBOR Mandatory Plan provider if you want to update beneficiaries you have designated for that retirement plan.
KPERS Mandatory Retirement Plan Participants: Download and complete KPERS Form 7/99 (pdf).
Voluntary Retirement Plan Participants: Contact your voluntary plan provider, either with the KBOR Voluntary Retirement Plan or Tandem, the state of Kansas 457 plan, to update beneficiaries you have designated for your voluntary retirement plan.

Optional Group Life Insurance Plans

You can cancel or reduce your coverage at any time by downloading and completing the Optional Group Life Insurance Reduction/Cancellation Form (pdf) and submitting it to the Benefits Office by either fax to 785-864-5790 or encrypted email to benefits@ku.edu.

If you experience changes due to life events, such as the birth or adoption of a child or a change in your marital status, you can exercise the following options within 30 days of the event without proof of good health:

Increase coverage by up to $25,000 (subject to the plan maximum of $500,000)
Elect $10,000, 25,000, 50,000 or $100,000 of Spouse Optional Group Life insurance
Elect $10,000 or $20,000 of Child(ren) Optional Group Life Insurance

Changes can be made by downloading and completing the Optional Group Life Insurance Enrollment Form (pdf) and submitting it to the Benefits Office benefits@ku.edu or by fax to 785-864-5790.

*An accessible version of the PDFs on this site will be made available upon request. Please contact our office at hrdept@ku.edu to request the document be made available in an accessible format.