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Barring any unforeseen changes regarding COVID-19, the National Emergency and Public Health Emergency declarations for COVID-19 will end on May 11, 2023. The end of these COVID-19 emergencies will also end certain requirements or benefit plans and relief offered to plan participants and beneficiaries. For example, group health plans will no longer be required to reimburse participants and beneficiaries for the purchase of at-home COVID-19 diagnostic tests and the cost of diagnostic tests administered by a health provider may be charged to plan participants and beneficiaries. In addition, while some group health plans will still be required to provide COVID-19 vaccines with no-cost sharing for in-network providers, vaccines administered by out-of-network providers may be subject to cost-sharing.
In addition, due to the COVID-19 emergency declarations, the deadlines for COBRA and ERISA claims and appeals were extended. Specifically, depending on which event came earlier, the deadlines were extended for a year or at least 60 days after the end of the COVID-19 emergency declarations. With the end of the COVID-19 emergencies on May 11, 2023, those deadline extensions will now expire on July 10, 2023. Accordingly, benefit plans and plan participants and beneficiaries should consider whether they were relying on an extension that would have ended beyond July 10th and take appropriate action before this new deadline to preserve any rights or obligations that they may be subject to pursuant to COBRA or ERISA’s claims procedures.