In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Departments of Labor and Treasury have issued regulations extending certain timeframes under the Employee Retirement Income and Security Act (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code (Code).
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Departments of Labor and Treasury have issued regulations extending certain timeframes under the Employee Retirement Income and Security Act (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code (Code) for group health plans, disability and other welfare plans, and participants and beneficiaries, employers and other plan sponsors, plan fiduciaries, and other service providers impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak during and following the “Outbreak Period” (defined below).
The period from March 1, 2020 until 60 days after the announced end of the National Emergency (or such other date announced by the Agencies in a future notice).
- No set end date at this time.
- The regulations state that to the extent there are different Outbreak Period end dates for different parts of the country, the Agencies will issue additional guidance regarding the application of the relief in the rule.
The regulations provides additional time to comply with certain deadlines affective COBRA continuation coverage, HIPAA special enrollment periods, claim for benefits, appeals of denied claims, and external review of certain claims. The regulations were also reviewed by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which concurred with the relief and advised the Departments that they will exercise enforcement discretion to adopt a temporary policy of measured enforcement to extend similar timeframes otherwise applicable to non-Federal governmental group health plans and health insurance issuers offering coverage under applicable provisions of the Public Health Service Act (PHS Act).
Please contact the Office of Human Resources if you have any questions. 336-278-5560 or benefits@elon.edu.