COVID-19 Response
| Notice | Relese Date | Description |
|
The Cares Act |
March 27th |
Expanded the listing of items that are eligible for reimbursement under health FSAs, Some HRAs, and HSAs, to include over-the-counter drugs and medicines as well as menstrual care products. Expenses incurred for these products are eligible retroactive to January 1st 2020. Coding of benefit cards should be completed by mid-May. |
| EBSA Disaster Relief Notice 2020-01 |
April 29th |
This notice defines an "Outbreak Period" that starts on March 1st 2020 and ends 60 days after the federal government declares the end of the COVID-19 emergency. The notices increases the period for employees to file claims for FSA, LPF or HRA expenses and additional time to for claims appeals if that employee's plan deadline occured during the "Outbreak Period". This notice also extends the time for a participant to enroll in coverage under a group health plan, the amount of time a participant has to pay for COBRA continuation, provides special health plan enrollment extension periods and the amount of time a participant has to notify a health plan of a qualifying event of disability. |
| IRS Notice 2020-29 |
May 12th |
In response to issues occuring as a result of COVID-19, this notice provides relief for Section 125 Cafeteria plans and HDHPs with Health Savings by providing the following optional changes to these plans: At the discretion of the employer plans can be permitted to adopt a special grace period that would allow employees enrolled in plans with coverage that ends in 2020 a special grace period to incur expenses against balances in those plans through 12/31/2020. This applies to FSAs, LPFs and DCA expenses against any balances. It also permits employers to change their plans to allow mid-year elections and changes outside of the more restrictive QLEs that generally apply. FInally there is a clarification on HDHPs that allows employees to be temporarily covered for Telehealth services and other COVID-19 expenses without impacting the tax status of HSA contributions. |
| IRS Notice 2020-33 |
May 12th |
This notice increases the carryover/rollover for health FSA and limited purpose FSA plans beginning in 2020, from $500 to $550, This notice also establishes an annual adjustment for inflation to the carry/roll over going forward. The adjusted carryover will be calculated as 20% of the annual IRS maximum FSA election for that plan year. |