A student handing her insurance card to a Watkins Business Office staff member

Business Office

Our Business Office helps patients understand their bill, how to pay their bill and educates them on insurance and related matters to make them better-informed healthcare consumers.

Required Health Fee

In accordance with the KU Comprehensive Fee Schedule, students attending classes on the Lawrence campus must pay “Required Campus Fees,” one of which is the Watkins Health Fee.

Students who are enrolled in five or fewer hours in fall and spring semesters or enrolled in four or fewer hours in the summer are only assessed an hourly, pro-rated amount by the university. When a partial-fee-paid student is first seen at WHS, the remaining unpaid amount of that semester’s Health Fee is charged. This is true for undergraduates, graduate and doctoral students as well as professional program students, i.e. Pharmacy and Law School students, and no exceptions are made. This makes the student “whole” with all other KU students who have paid the entire Health Fee.

Paying the full Health Fee entitles the student to be seen by our providers at no charge for the office visit and discounted rates for lab tests, medications and any procedures performed.

For questions about the Health Fee, please call our Business Office at 785-864-9520.

Business Office & Insurance FAQ

The health fee is a per semester fee that is charged to every student taking classes on the Lawrence KU Campus. Typically, if you are taking 6 or more on-campus hours (5 or more in the summer) the health fee is part of your required campus fees. If you are taking less than 6 hours, or some of your courses are online, you were only charged a fraction of the required campus fees.

To see a provider at Watkins, including in CAPS, you must pay the remaining portion of your health fee. This will be charged to your Watkins account rather than your tuition. The health fees allow students to see Watkins’s providers as often as needed without an additional fee in most cases. If your tuition is paid by the university, scholarships, grants, or by other means, you will still have to pay this fee through Watkins.

Yes, you still have to pay the health fee even if you have the UnitedHealthcare StudentResources insurance plan. We cannot charge the health fee to insurance of any kind as it is not a health service, but rather a part of your required campus fees.

No, not all services at Watkins are free. The only thing that is free are the face-to-face appointments with our providers. All procedures, x-ray, labs, injections, prescriptions, etc. will come with a charge, but at a much lower rate than you would be charged elsewhere.

We can bill most major insurances. However, this does not guarantee that the insurance company will consider us “in-network” and does not guarantee payment for a service. Payment for a service is dependent on many different things: your specific plan, the reason for the service, circumstances surrounding your visit, other things done at the time of service, etc. This is up to your insurance company to review and decide if they are going to pay. We cannot tell you if your insurance company will cover a specific service. You will need to call the insurance company and discuss your coverage with them.

No. We are not contracted with Medicaid. You can still be seen by providers at Watkins at no cost if your health fee has been paid. However, if any other services such as labs, injections, or prescriptions are needed, you will have to work with staff to be referred elsewhere in the community or pay for those services to be done at Watkins. Watkins staff must be aware that you have Medicaid prior to your appointment. If we are not informed, you will be financially responsible for any services received.

Unfortunately, no. If we bill something to your insurance where the parent is the policyholder, they will have the ability to see the charge. We do offer a “Private Billing” option though. Just request “Private Billing” at the time of service. The staff member helping you will direct you to the Business Office. You will have to complete a “Financial Responsibility” form and you will need to pay for the services at that time. If the service is not paid for the same day, we cannot guarantee that it will be billed privately. If a parent calls and asks about a service that was done, we will not tell them anything about the service as most students are considered legal adults.

We cannot tell you if your insurance will cover a specific service. Payment by insurance is never guaranteed. We can tell you what the price would be without insurance/the price that will be billed to insurance. The Business Office can provide you with pricing for specific lab tests. If the insurance does not pay, that price is the amount you would be responsible for.

The University of Kansas has a contract with UnitedHealthcare to offer reasonably priced insurance to our students. It is not required for students to have health insurance while at KU, but it is highly recommended. This contract with UnitedHealthcare allows you to receive services at Watkins, without having to pay your deductible first.

Each school year there are three open enrollment periods in which you would be able to sign up for the insurance. It usually opens the month before the semester starts and closes at the end of the month when the semester starts (i.e., fall enrollment would be July-August). If you do not apply for the insurance within these enrollment periods, you will not be able to get coverage. The exception to this would be a life qualifying event; birth/adoption of a child, loss of previous coverage in the last 30 days, marriage, etc. If you are applying due to a life qualifying event, you need to come to the Business Office to apply.

If you want to apply for insurance during the open enrollment period, you can do this online. Not all students qualify for student insurance. Eligibility will be determined by UnitedHealthcare and your enrollment with the university.

At Watkins, we bill through “cycles.” When you receive a service, it takes about a week for the bill to be approved. It must first be double-checked by the provider and our medical coder. From there, if you do not have insurance, the cycle begins. If you do have insurance, the cycle does not begin until we receive information back from your insurance company. From the time the cycle begins you have 60 days to pay off the balance. In those 60 days, you will receive two email statements and be mailed two paper statements. If the balance is not paid within those 60 days, the balance becomes overdue. At that time, the amount is moved to your KU student account to be collected. This may prevent you from enrolling in classes or getting a copy of your transcript. To prevent issues with receiving statements, please ensure we have a current mailing address on file.

There are many ways you can pay your bill.

  • You can pay directly through your patient portal
  • You can pay online
  • You can send checks or credit card information by mail to:
     Watkins Health Services
     1200 Schwegler Drive
      Lawrence, KS 66045
     *We do not suggest sending cash through the mail*
  • You can come to the Business Office inside Watkins Health Services and pay with credit/debit card, check or cash
  • You can call the Business Office at 785-864-9520 and pay with a credit/debit card over the phone

No, services provided by CAPS are not free. The typical appointment with a psychologist, with full health fees paid, is $15. Fees for an appointment with a psychiatrist range from $25-$40. These rates are significantly lower than you would receive elsewhere.

Because of HIPAA privacy laws, we are not able to bill the athletic department directly. If you have services that are to be covered by the athletic department, you need to stop by the Business Office and ask for a “Walk-Out Statement.” You can turn in this statement to your athletic trainer, who will send it to their accounting department to be paid. Keep in mind that it could be a month or more before the services are paid.