New rule extends time for COBRA elections, premium payments

On Monday, May 4, the IRS and the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) jointly published a rule in the Federal Register significantly extending the time in which employees may elect COBRA health insurance continuation coverage and begin paying their premiums in the midst of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. The full text of the rule may be accessed at: www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/05/04/2020-09399/extension-of-certain-timeframes-for-employee-benefit-plans-participants-and-beneficiaries-affected. The agencies also published new model COBRA notices.

Extensions of COBRA deadlines

Under the new rule, health insurance plan administrators are directed to "disregard the period from March 1, 2020 until sixty (60) days after the announced end of the National Emergency . . . (the 'Outbreak Period')" for purposes of calculating election and premium payment deadlines. A similar extension applies to other time frames such as the 30-day period to request special enrollment under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), for the birth of a newborn child, and for deadlines for filing appeals of adverse benefit determinations under plans covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

The rule provides several examples of how the COBRA deadline extensions work, all of which are predicated on an assumption that the "national emergency" ends on April 30, a date that has already passed and thus will be subject to further extension.