Over the past few weeks, we have received many questions regarding the ongoing Outbreak Period and the newly signed American Rescue Plan Act. Our senior Legal Counsel, Michelle Barki, took the time to answer them all for you. This morning during our webinar, we answered general questions, subsidy-related questions, and voluntary versus involuntary termination questions. Next Tuesday, for Part 2, we will discuss Depended Care and Notices. In case you missed it, here are the questions and answers:

General Questions and Answers

Will COBRA members be able to have a coverage gap?

There is a special...

Last year on May 4, the Agencies, Department of Labor (DOL), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the IRS issued a joint notice on providing additional relief due to the National Emergency. Former President Trump declared the National Emergency on March 13, 2020, in response to the fast-spreading Coronavirus. As a result, the Agencies provided an “extension of certain timeframes for employee benefit plans, participants, and beneficiaries affected by COVID-19." Thus, the “Outbreak Period” began. 

The Outbreak Period, which was March 1, 2020, through 60 after the end of the National Emergency, ...

In Florida, the Law firm of Wensel, Fenton, and Cabassa, P.A. files class-action lawsuits when terminated employees are not provided a COBRA notice that strictly follows the Model Notice

put out by the DOL. On June 18, 2020, one such class-action suit was filed by a former southwest airline employee who stated the Notice received was incomplete and confusing. The Complaint also outlined that the COBRA Notice was not provided within 44 days of termination.

The Complaint alleged the Plaintiff experienced a qualifying event on May 8, 2019, and that she did not get her COBRA Notice until August 6, 2019....

In January we hosted a webinar and published a subsequent blog, How the Pandemic Affects FSAs and Dependent Care, and typical for this Pandemic, we now have updates for some of that information. Things are changing rapidly and e are working very hard to ensure you have the most current information possible, at all times.

Dependent Care

During the webinars we presented a few weeks ago a question kept coming up over and over:

"If an employer allows a roll-over of unused DCAP funds from 2020 to 2021 as allowed by the CAA-2021, does this reduce the maximum...