Archived Insight | April 19, 2022
Effective April 12, 2022, the federal government extended the COVID-19 public health emergency for at least an additional 90 days, until mid-July.
This is the ninth extension of the emergency, which the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) declared on January 31, 2020 (retroactive to January 27, 2020). The HHS secretary could terminate the public health emergency earlier than mid-July or extend it again.
Before the public health emergency expires, HHS has indicated it will give at least a 60-day notice.
This public emergency declaration is important to health plan sponsors because it determines the period during which group health plans and insurers must pay for COVID-19 tests and related services without charging cost sharing. In addition, non-grandfathered plans must cover vaccines in network as a preventive benefit, but during the public emergency must also cover them on an out-of-network basis. To learn more, see our December 15, 2020 insight, “Most Plans Must Cover COVID-19 Vaccine Without Cost Sharing.”
Plan sponsors should ensure plans are administered consistently with the requirements for the public health emergency.
Other plan requirements, most notably the requirement to extend certain deadlines related to COBRA, special enrollment, and claims and appeals, are pegged to a different COVID-19 emergency declaration — the national emergency. President Trump made that declaration on March 13, 2020, retroactive to March 1, 2020. That emergency declaration does not expire automatically. On February 18, 2022, President Biden extended the national emergency until March 1, 2023.
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This page is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax or investment advice. You are encouraged to discuss the issues raised here with your legal, tax and other advisors before determining how the issues apply to your specific situations.