President Biden signed into law a House bill on April 10 that immediately ended the COVID-19 presidential declaration of national emergency established in March 2020. The COVID-19 federal public health emergency—a separate declaration by the Secretary of Health and Human Services from January 2020—remains in effect for now. However, based on comments from the Biden administration, that too is set to expire on May 11. As such, employers may wish to take stock of their COVID-19 policies and reevaluate those that touch on benefits, vaccine and testing requirements, and other safety measures.
CHANGES TO MEDICAL BENEFITS
The biggest impact of the end of the emergency declarations will be the changes to COVID-19 medical benefits. Morgan Lewis recently summarized these changes and the next steps for plan sponsors. Employers should be prepared to respond to inquiries from employees regarding changes in coverage and related deadlines.
The end of the presidential declaration of national emergency will likely have the greatest impact on COBRA qualified beneficiaries. Any suspended time frames for electing and paying for COBRA coverage are currently set to end 60 days after the end of the national emergency (Outbreak Period). However, the US Department of Labor has provided verbal, informal guidance to stakeholders indicating their intention to end the Outbreak Period on July 10, 2023, consistent with earlier guidance. Given this uncertainty, and for administrative ease, plan sponsors...
The Trump administration’s fraud prosecution of the Southern Poverty Law Center is set for arraignment on Thursday afternoon. Ahead of the scheduled court appearance in Alabama, defense lawyers fo...