Last week, President Biden signed a House bill that immediately ended the COVID-19 National Emergency. While the bill came a month earlier than initially planned, the original end date for deadlines and relief will hold, but employers should act now to ensure their
The National Emergency period, or NE, mainly impacted the deadlines of COBRA enrollment and payment, HIPAA special enrollment and group health plan claims and appeals. This differs from those under the Public Health Emergency, or PHE, which is still scheduled to expire in May; the PHE requires health plans to cover COVID-19 vaccines, testing and other related services.
While these periods have marked a time of more flexibility and coverage for employers, the U.S. government still believes it's imperative to revert back to the status quo after providing several extensions over the past few years, says Georgia Robinette, lead counsel for Stephens Insurance.
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"President Biden has felt political pressure to go ahead and end this period of relief, which has been going on now for over three years," she says. "The IRS extended all of these employee benefit deadlines, and now all those will go away."
Under the NE, plan participants had extended deadlines that lasted one year or 60 days after the outbreak period, which is July 10 — whichever comes first. The outbreak period started in 2020 and was always marked to end 60 days after the NE was declared over. COBRA, which temporarily provides a continuation of health plan coverage if workers lose their benefits, saw much more flexible deadlines for employers and employees alike because of NE. For example, if someone were laid off and then became eligible for COBRA coverage on April 22, 2022, they would have until April 22, 2023 to elect COBRA coverage and even make premium payments. On the other hand, under NE, employers who administrate their own health plan could wait a year to send eligible workers their COBRA notice.
However, if an individual becomes eligible for COBRA this month, they will not get the additional year-long extension. Instead, they would have to elect coverage and begin payments by September 8, 2023 — 60 days after the final July 10 designation.
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After the July 10 expiration, employees will return to the 60-day deadline for COBRA election and the 45-day deadline for their initial premium payment. Employers will return to the 44-day deadline. With the NE, the same extension was given to HIPAA special enrollment deadlines, which allows workers to request employer-provided coverage after they initially denied that coverage, due to experiencing certain life events that cause them to lose healthcare.
"Employees also had a longer time to notify their employer if they had a qualifying event for [HIPPA special enrollment], like a divorce," says Robinette. "The government provided this relief where a plan participant could take up to a year on certain actions with respect to their plan, and they wouldn't be subject to these shorter deadlines."
That year-long extension applied to filing and appealing healthcare claims as well. Notably, guidance from the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and the Treasury remind
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Regardless, Robinette warns employers that they will have to individually assess their workers on their date of eligibility for plan enrollment and claims. "If it was recent, maybe they won't get the full year because it will have to be cut off," she says.
Another thing employers should keep in mind is that Medicaid programs may be restricting eligibility, and more people will be looking for coverage.
"During the pandemic, Medicaid programs were prevented from dropping people from the program, but as of March 31, they can start dropping people," says Robinette. "A large number of people are going to have to go to employer group health plans."
As for the upcoming end of PHE, employers should note that group health plans are no longer required to cover COVID-19 tests and vaccines. Robinette underlines that employers may want to ensure their plan participants still have access to affordable tests and vaccines in lieu of government support.
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"Vaccines and testing are going to be more expensive, because the federal government has been subsidizing those costs," says Robinette. "And plans can apply cost-sharing to the participant if they want to."
The end of both the NE and PHE comes just as the latest
"Take a holistic approach, look at your employee population," says Robinette. "Are you seeing a lot of cases? What works best for your business and your employees? And if you decide to make any changes, you will have to act pretty quickly."
