DOL indicated that fiduciaries should make reasonable accommodations to prevent the loss of or undue delay of benefit payments. Plan sponsors should take action to mitigate possibility of individuals losing out benefits because of failure to comply with affected timeframes
Tuesday, March 2, 2021
Last year, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Department of Labor (DOL) issued two notices that extended certain benefit plan deadlines for both employees/plan participants and for plan administrators as a result of the COVID-19 national emergency (the “Original Notices”). A link to our article about these deadlines can be found here.
The Original Notices stated that, when determining the deadline for certain benefit-related actions, such as a HIPAA special enrollment or a COBRA election, the period from March 1, 2020 until 60 days after the end of the national emergency (the end of such 60-day period is referred to as the end of the “Outbreak Period”) should be disregarded. As an example, an employee whose COBRA election deadline was March 15, 2020 (15 days after the extension went into effect) would have until 15 days after the end of the Outbreak Period to make their COBRA election.