Leave of Absence, Graduation, and Withdrawal

If your journey at Cornell completes or you need to take a break, your SHP insurance changes.

Students, and their qualified dependents, can have health insurance through CUSHP only during the time a student is actively working towards completing their degree. Graduating, taking a leave of absence, or withdrawing from the university changes a student's eligibility to be on SHP.

Graduating Students

Once a student graduates, they and their qualified dependents, cannot re-enroll in annual SHP coverage and their current coverage ends soon after graduation.
Graduates can choose to purchase a continuation of coverage.

Leave of Absence

Important! In many cases, insurance through SHP does not automatically end when a student takes a leave of absence.

If you are enrolled in SHP for the plan year, and you do not want SHP insurance during your leave, you must request a termination of coverage. This applies to all students, including those in PhD programs who may lose funding for SHP during their leave. Students who maintain SHP insurance must pay any premium due if your funding stops.
- Refunds cannot be given without a termination request.
- Go to Gallagher Student Health to complete your termination of coverage request.
Choose to purchase a continuation of coverage based on the effective date for your leave of absence.

Withdrawal

Coverage for students who withdraw from the University will end on the last day of the month after our office has been informed of a pending or past withdrawal, unless the withdrawal was effective prior to the start of the current coverage year, in which case coverage will be voided effective July 1st.
Students who are cancel/withdrawn from the university may be eligible for a continuation of coverage if they had SHP coverage during the plan year.
Please contact our office if you have questions about your options and coverage end date following withdrawal from the university.

Optional Dental and Vision

Optional Dental and Vision insurances purchased in the current plan year, will continue through June 30th, unless cancelled, regardless of student status. There are no refunds for cancellation of Dental or Vision coverage.

These products do not offer continuations of coverage for students graduating, going on leave, or withdrawing from the university.

Please note: "Leave of Absence" and "In Absentia" are different types of registration status. The bulleted list below applies only to leaves of absence. If you are studying "In Absentia", you are still required to be enrolled in health coverage meeting university requirements and waiver eligibility status.

Date of institutional knowledge is the latter of the change in status effective date on record in the registrar data or the date which the change in status effective date is updated in PeopleSoft by the University Registrar. If an effective date is backdated, the date of institutional knowledge is the date the change in status is updated in PeopleSoft by the University Registrar.