Student health insurance program

Created in response to student demand, the student health insurance program offers a comprehensive health insurance package for VCU students through our partners, United Health Care.

All full-time Ph.D. students, first professional students (D.D.S., M.D., Pharm.D.) and international students (those on F- and J-visas) are eligible for the student health insurance program. A hard waiver will apply for these student populations, meaning that they will be required to enroll in the program if they are unable to provide proof of other insurance.

Enroll or opt out of the plan

The open enrollment period will run from December 15, 2022 to February 15, 2023.

Please contact your respective eligibility coordinator if you have any questions.

Student Population	Enrollment
First professional students (D.D.S., M.D., Pharm.D.)	Must enroll full-time to access portal
Full-time Ph.D. students	Must enroll in a minimum of 9 credits to access portal
International undergraduate, master's student, or Ph.D. (those on F- and J-visas) Important: Any international individual enrolled in a class or classes at VCU is considered a student and is subject to the health insurance premium based on tuition and fees assessment rules	Must enroll in 1-15 credits to access portal

Student Population

Enrollment

First professional students (D.D.S., M.D., Pharm.D.)

Must enroll full-time to access portal

Full-time Ph.D. students

Must enroll in a minimum of 9 credits to access portal

International undergraduate, master's student, or Ph.D.

(those on F- and J-visas)

Important: Any international individual enrolled in a class or classes at VCU is considered a student and is subject to the health insurance premium based on tuition and fees assessment rules

Must enroll in 1-15 credits to access portal

Access the portal for the open enrollment period here

The portal updates overnight so changes to your enrollment may not show until 48 hours after enrollment changes. Part-time (1-8 credits) domestic doctoral students are not required to enroll in the VCU Student Health Insurance program.

If you experience a Qualifying Life Event (QLE) (e.g. loss of health insurance coverage, no longer eligible on your parent’s health insurance, marriage, etc.) during the plan year 8/15/2022 - 8/14/2023, you can enroll in the VCU health insurance for the remainder of the current coverage period using the form below. All premiums will be paid directly to UnitedHealthcare. Subsidies do not apply for those enrolling in the plan via QLE.

VCU Qualifying Life Event Request Form

Step-by-step tutorials

Plan benefits

The following documents provide information about the benefits contained within VCU's health care package:

Student health insurance brochure: Provides a high-level, easy to read overview of the plan benefits, good for comparison purposes
Certificate of Coverage: Provides additional details and an in-depth look at the plan benefits outlined in the brochure

These documents, as well as key points of the information contained within, can also be found on our Plan Benefits webpage and United Health Care's VCU webpage.

Resources for students enrolled in the plan

Once you have enrolled in the plan, you can print ID cards, find providers and pharmacies, and more by visiting United Health Care's VCU webpage:

Go to United Health Care's VCU webpage »

Who to contact

For questions about the student health insurance program, please contact your respective eligibility coordinator listed below:

Student group	Eligibility coordinator	Email
Ph.D. students	Melissa Tyler	gradhealthins@vcu.edu
D.D.S students	Michael Healy and Shane Castro	mhealy@vcu.edu secastro@vcu.edu
Pharm.D. students	Tori Keel	vakeel@vcu.edu
M.D. students	Amanda Ray Ennis	Amanda.Ennis@vcuhealth.org
International students	Nichole Dorton	intlhealthins@vcu.edu