Natural Disaster Relief for Employee Benefit Plans

At A Glance

• In response to 2024 Tropical Storm Helene, Hurricane Helene, and Hurricane Milton, the Department of Labor (DOL), Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have issued disaster relief guidance affecting employee benefit plans. 
• The relief applies to participants or beneficiaries directly affected by these natural disasters.
• Individuals can continue to elect and pay for COBRA under the standard timeframes, but the relief provided by the Emergency Relief Notices is automatically available should they need it. 
• This relief also applies to other benefit plan due dates. 
• The disaster period is set to end on May 1, 2025.

Requirments

Relief for Plan Participants, Beneficiaries, Qualified Beneficiaries, and Claimants 

In response to the disaster caused by Tropical Storm Helene, Hurricane Helene, and Hurricane Milton Disaster Relief has been granted for directly affected individuals. The IRS and EBSA jointly published Rule 2024-26014,and the DOL issued an FAQ guide regarding the relief.

The rule extends certain benefit-related deadlines to those directly affected by the disasters. This includes:

• Extended deadlines for HIPAA special enrollment rights under a group health plan.
• Extended deadlines for COBRA elections, premium payments, or notice of qualifying event or disability. 
• Extended deadlines for filing a claim, appeal, or request for external review.

Coverage - Directly Affected

The Federal Register notice explicitly states:

“A participant, beneficiary, qualified beneficiary, or claimant directly affected by Hurricane Helene, Tropical Storm Helene, or Hurricane Milton means an individual who resided, lived, or worked in one of the disaster areas at the time of the hurricane or tropical storm; or whose coverage was under an employee benefit plan that was directly affected.”

Coverage - Disaster Areas

The joint agency guidance defines the disaster areas as counties or tribal areas in the following states that have been or were designated as disaster areas eligible for “Individual Assistance by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)” because of the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, Tropical Storm Helene, or Hurricane Milton. All areas have the same end date.

What does this mean for employers and participants?

Under the relief, affected benefit plans must disregard the “relief period” before imposing any of the eligible deadlines on a participant eligible for the disaster relief. The agencies have provided a list of example scenarios in rule 2024-26014 and published additional FAQs.

While not directly noted in the regulations, the rule also extends Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) covered employee benefit plans, Flexible Spending Account (FSA), and Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) claims deadlines. This does not apply to non-ERISA covered plans such as Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), or Transportation Management Accounts (TMAs) .

For Participants

The DOL has extended the timeframes for special enrollment and COBRA continuation coverage in the Joint Notice. However, those extensions apply only to the participant's coverage under their employer's group health plan. If you have questions about the timeframes that apply to individual health insurance coverage, contact the insurer, an agent or broker, or the Marketplace.

Examples

The attached examples illustrate the timeframe for extensions required under the relief. In each example, assume that the individual described is directly affected by the hurricane or tropical storm.