What the Kansas Accident & Health Line Covers
K.S.A. 40-4903 names the line "accident and health or sickness" — major medical, disability income, Medicare supplement, long-term care, dental, vision and the group products alongside them. Kansas's statutory vocabulary calls the licensee an "insurance agent" rather than a producer; the Department's web copy says producer. Same licence.
Two Kansas features shape what this licence is worth in the field. Kansas runs an unusually long state continuation period — 18 months under K.S.A. 40-2209, where many states run three or six — which makes group-to-individual transitions a real conversation. And Kansas defines a small employer as one with "at least two and no more than 50 eligible employees" (K.S.A. 40-2209d), a wider band than the ACA default that keeps a genuine small-group market in play.
If life business is even possible, price the combined exam first. Kansas offers 12-KS-05, Life and Accident & Health, at $64 for both lines — against $114 to sit 12-KS-01 and 12-KS-02 separately. Seven dollars over a single line buys the second authority outright. The Life & Health guide covers that route.
Exam Options & Format
KS Accident & Health Producer, series 12-KS-02: 84 scored questions plus 11 unscored pretest items (95 presented), 1 hour 30 minutes, $57, with a 70% passing score.
The Kansas content outline splits the paper into general principles and a substantial state block: 20 questions on Kansas laws and rules common to all lines, plus 14 on Kansas accident-and-health rules specifically. That is about 34 of 84 — roughly 40% of the exam on material no national study guide covers. Kansas does not score the state block separately; it is one integrated exam and one score.
On the 70%: the handbook says only "the passing score required on each examination is 70%" and never says whether that is raw percent-correct or a scaled figure, and no KID page states a passing score at all. Aim at 70 and disregard anyone who claims to know which kind it is.
Every attempt is in person. Kansas insurance does not appear on Pearson VUE's OnVUE program list, the July 2026 handbook contains no mention of remote proctoring, and KID directs candidates to test centers. A Kansas-insurance OnVUE web address does still resolve, but it serves the ordinary Kansas landing page — no scheduling, no system test, no room requirements. Treat it as an orphaned page.
Retakes need 24 hours to rebook and a seven-calendar-day wait before retesting, with no cap on attempts and a fresh $57 each. A passing score is then good for two years — and Kansas lets you apply for the licence before or after the exam, which almost no state does.
Most Tested Topics on the Kansas Accident & Health Exam
The 14 A&H-specific Kansas questions concentrate on what a policy must offer, how fast a claim must be paid, and what happens when group coverage ends. From the TESTivity Kansas regulations curriculum, verified against the code:
| Concept | The Kansas rule |
|---|---|
| Free look, individual A&H | At least 10 days from delivery — K.A.R. 40-4-22. The notice must appear on the first page in at least 10-point bold, and on return "the policy shall be void from the beginning and the parties shall be in the same position as if no policy or contract had been issued." Travel accident policies are excluded |
| Free look, life and annuity | Also 10 days — K.A.R. 40-2-15 |
| Free look, long-term care | At least 30 days |
| Free look, Medicare supplement | 30 days from receipt |
| Prompt payment — clean claim | 30 days after receipt to pay, or to send written or electronic notice — K.S.A. 40-2442 |
| Prompt payment — interest | 1% per month on the amount unpaid 30 days after receipt |
| Prompt payment — more information | The claimant gets 30 days to supply requested additional information, and the insurer then has 15 days from receiving it to pay or notify |
| Recovering an overpayment | Limited to 18 months after the end of the month of payment, except for fraud |
| Pharmacy audit lookback | Capped at 2 years |
| State continuation | 18 months under the group policy — K.S.A. 40-2209 |
| Continuation eligibility | Continuous coverage for at least 3 months immediately before termination |
| Conversion | Written application no later than 31 days after termination, without evidence of insurability; the insurer must give notice of the conversion right at least once during the 18 months |
| Continuation exclusions | Termination for nonpayment, Medicare eligibility, availability of other group coverage, or termination for cause |
| Small employer | "At least two and no more than 50 eligible employees" on at least 50% of working days in the preceding year — K.S.A. 40-2209d |
| Medicare supplement | 6-month open enrollment from Part B enrollment; 6-month maximum preexisting-condition wait; guaranteed issue with application no later than 63 calendar days after coverage ends |
| ⚠ No birthday rule | Kansas has no annual guaranteed-issue window and no birthday rule — outside open enrollment and the listed guaranteed-issue events, medical underwriting applies |
The 18-month continuation period is Kansas's single most distinctive health fact, and it is the opposite of the trap most states set. Where many state continuation laws run three months and act as a stopgap for employers below the federal COBRA threshold, Kansas runs the full 18 — the same length as federal COBRA. The gates are what get tested: three months of prior continuous coverage to qualify, 31 days to apply for conversion at the end, and the coverage does not apply at all if the group policy is replaced by similar coverage within 31 days.
The prompt-pay chain is the other reliable block, and it has four numbers in sequence. Thirty days to pay a clean claim or send notice. One percent a month in interest on whatever is still unpaid at day 30. Thirty days for the claimant to supply anything the insurer asks for. Then fifteen — not another thirty — from receipt of that information to pay or notify. Candidates who memorise "30 days" and stop get the second half wrong.
One negative worth carrying into the exam: Kansas has no Medicare supplement birthday rule. Several states have added annual switching windows in recent years and study material has drifted; KID's own 2026 shopper's guide describes open enrollment as "a one-time only six-month period" and warns that outside it and the guaranteed-issue events "there is no guarantee that an insurance company will sell you a Medicare Supplement policy."
Kansas Exam Waivers — Six Situations, and Not One Is a Designation
Start with the correction, because it is the most common error in Kansas licensing content: Kansas grants no designation-based exam waiver of any kind. CLU, ChFC, CPCU, CIC, FLMI, RHU, LUTCF — none of them appears anywhere in K.S.A. 40-4908, and since Kansas also requires no pre-licensing education, there is no course requirement for a credential to waive either. If a page tells you your CPCU shortens the Kansas path, it is describing a different state.
What Kansas does have is a tight statutory list of six situations in which the Commissioner shall waive the examination. Note the word: the statute is mandatory, not discretionary, where a category fits.
One — you are currently licensed elsewhere for the same lines. The straightforward reciprocity case, and the one most new Kansas residents use.
Two — you were recently licensed elsewhere. The application must arrive within 90 days of the cancellation of the other state's licence, with certification that you were in good standing at cancellation. Kansas will accept records from the NAIC producer database in place of paper certification, which in practice means the Department can verify it without you chasing your old regulator.
Three — travel insurance sold with transportation tickets. Agents selling travel insurance in connection with common-carrier tickets are exempt.
Four — you held a Kansas licence and surrendered it voluntarily. The surrender must have been not more than two years prior, your education must be current, and you must still be trustworthy and competent. This is a genuinely useful provision for producers returning after a career break, and it is far more forgiving than the equivalent rule in most states.
Five — long-standing crop agents. Applicants continuously licensed in Kansas for crop insurance since 30 April 1986.
Six — the clerical-error case. Where an applicant qualified by examination but was never certified because of an insurer's clerical error, the waiver applies — and the insurer pays back appointment fees plus the penalty under K.S.A. 40-4912.
Moving to Kansas? The clock runs from residency, not from the paperwork. A producer who moves here "shall apply for a resident license within 90 days of establishing legal residence," and the statute is explicit that "no person who has been previously authorized for any line of authority shall be required to be examined in this state for the same line of authority." Going the other way, a Kansas resident who moves out must obtain an active resident licence in the new home state within 30 days or the nonresident status is cancelled.
What a waiver does not cover. The examination is the only thing waived. You still file through NIPR, still pay the $10 application fee and the $60 background check, still submit fingerprints, and — if you are applying as a resident — still obtain the Kansas Department of Revenue tax clearance. Nonresidents are the exception: they are not fingerprinted and do not need tax clearance, because K.S.A. 40-4906 conditions their licence on home-state good standing alone.
One adjacent relief worth knowing, since it sits in the same part of the statute: under K.S.A. 40-4905, an applicant may submit proof of good standing from a background check completed within the past 12 months for another state's licence, potentially avoiding a repeat check. That is a fingerprint relief, not an exam waiver — but it comes up in the same conversation.
And one more path that skips the exam entirely without being a waiver. Kansas issues temporary licences under K.S.A. 40-4907 without a written examination in four succession situations. That is a different mechanism with a 180-day limit; the Life & Health guide covers it.
What It Costs
$57 exam + $60 criminal background check + $10 application (2026) — about $127, plus NIPR's transaction fee. No course to buy: KID states "Kansas does not have a pre-licensing education requirement."
Fingerprint capture is free at the Kansas Department of Insurance in Topeka and at six Department of Children and Families locations; a Pearson VUE Professional Center charges $20, and local law enforcement may charge. The $60 is the background check itself and is unavoidable.
The application fee moves annually. K.S.A. 40-4905 requires the Commissioner to set it each year and publish it in the Kansas Register, capped at $30. It is $10 for 2026 and was $15 for 2025, which is why KID's own resident checklist still shows $15.
If you later add the Life line, that is another $57 exam — or would have been $64 total had you taken the combined 12-KS-05 at the outset. Renewal is $4 every two years.
Eligibility Requirements
Be at least 18, submit fingerprints for a state and national criminal history record check under K.S.A. 40-4905, hold a current Kansas Department of Revenue Certificate of Tax Clearance, and avoid the seventeen disqualifying grounds in K.S.A. 40-4909.
Those grounds are worth reading before you answer the background questions. They include obtaining a licence by misrepresentation, misappropriating or converting money, conviction of a misdemeanor or felony, having a licence denied or revoked in another state, using notes or reference material during an exam, failure to comply with a child-support order, failure to pay state income tax, and failing to respond to a Commissioner's inquiry within 15 business days.
No pre-licensing course. No designation waiver. The Life guide walks the NIPR application and the tax clearance; the Casualty guide walks the fingerprint process.
Keeping the License Active
Important CE details: Kansas exempts several limited lines from CE entirely — pre-need funeral, bail bond, self-service storage and travel — but there is no exemption for a major line, for long service, or for any professional designation.
Biennial term ending the last day of your birth month — odd years for an odd birth year, even years for an even one. CE is 18 hours per cycle including at least 3 hours of ethics (K.S.A. 40-4903), with the remaining 15 at your discretion.
No carryover. KID: "courses must be completed during the biennium to which they are to be applied." And under K.A.R. 40-7-20a you cannot re-earn credit for the same course inside a biennium. Excess hours are forfeited.
A detail that shapes how you take courses: self-study requires an independently monitored examination, while classroom courses do not. Online self-study must also prevent access to the exam before the material is reviewed. Attend at least 80% of a classroom course's scheduled sessions and you may still receive full credit with proper certification.
Credits post through State Based Systems (SBS), and NIPR verifies CE compliance before it will accept a renewal. The Property & Casualty guide covers the renewal mechanics and Kansas's automatic CE-failure suspension.
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