<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After more than three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration has announced the end of both the National Emergency and the Public Health Emergency on May 11, 2023<\/em>. As a result, the impacts these declarations had on employee benefit plans will sunset. Benefit administrators and employer groups need to prepare employees for the transition back to a pre-pandemic world. Your health insurance carrier will be sending information about the specific changes affecting your employees. As always, please reach out to your DDI Account Manager if you have any questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under the Public Health Emergency (PHE) enacted in January 2020, all Americans have access to free COVID-19 tests and vaccines. As the PHE and federal funding come to an end, Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers will all make decisions on how to cover COVID-related healthcare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whereas states and the federal government may continue some services at no cost for Medicaid and Medicare enrollees, private health insurers will need to determine how they will cover these services, including whether services will be subject to normal out-of-pocket costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plan sponsors will need to communicate any coverage changes to employees and ensure all plan-related documents accurately describe coverage, exclusions, and limitations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In May 2020, the Departments of Labor and Treasury issued guidance that extended the deadlines to elect COBRA, pay COBRA premiums, elect HIPAA special enrollment, and file benefit claims, appeals, and external review requests. These suspensions (tied to the National Emergency declaration issued in March 2020) are known as the \u201cOutbreak Period Extensions.\u201d The Outbreak Period will end on July 10, 2023 \u2013 60 days after the National Emergency ends. Plan sponsors and benefit administrators should update employee communications and adjust administrative processes to reflect the return to normal timeframes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plan sponsors may need to seek guidance from the IRS about pre-deductible coverage for COVID-19 testing and treatments that were allowed during the PHE under HSA-eligible high-deductible plans. The IRS has not indicated if or when this policy<\/a> might end. Pre-deductible coverage for telehealth services has been approved through the end of 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the PHE, states were required to provide \u201ccontinuous coverage\u201d to Medicaid and CHIP beneficiaries, even when beneficiaries no longer qualified for the programs. As of April 1, 2023, states can begin to disenroll recipients who are no longer eligible. Although a gradual \u201cunwinding\u201d will be in place to minimize disruptions, millions of people are expected to lose coverage. These changes could trigger a qualifying event for some employees. Click here<\/a> for more information from our April End of COVID-19 Emergency Declarations\u00a0and Return to Pre-Pandemic Benefits After more than three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration has announced the end of both the National Emergency and the Public Health Emergency on May 11, 2023. As a result, the impacts these declarations had on employee benefit plans will sunset. Benefit administrators […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,7],"tags":[41],"class_list":["post-1070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-benefits-administration","category-compliance","tag-may-2023-newsletter"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa1tE9-hg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddibenefits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddibenefits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddibenefits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddibenefits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddibenefits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1070"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ddibenefits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1071,"href":"https:\/\/ddibenefits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070\/revisions\/1071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddibenefits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddibenefits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddibenefits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Public Health Emergency<\/h1>\n\n\n\nNational Emergency<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
These suspended timeframes<\/a> will begin to run again on pre-pandemic timelines, effective July 11, 2023:<\/p>\n\n\n\nHealth Savings Accounts<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Impacts to Medicaid and CHIP Coverage<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
2023 DDI newsletter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"