RISA Timeframes Extended During COVID-19 Emergency
Today (April 29th), the Department of Labor (DoL) and Department of the Treasury released a final rule to extend the timeframe for covered persons’ rights to enroll in or continue health coverage under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). This guidance applies to ERISA-covered group health plans, disability and other welfare plans, pension plans, and participants and beneficiaries of these plans during the COVID-19 National Emergency. Over 50% of commercial health insurance enrollment is in ERISA-regulated plans. The rule requires plans to disregard the period from March 1st until 60 days after the announced end of the national emergency (or another date, if announced by the DoL in a future notice) in determining:
- The 30-day period (or 60-day period, if applicable) to request special enrollment;
- The 60-day election period for COBRA continuation coverage;
- The date for making COBRA premium payments;
- The date for individuals to notify the plan of a qualifying event or determination of disability;
- The period during which individuals may file a benefit claim under the plan’s claims procedure; and,
- The period during which claimants may file an appeal of benefits determinations or external reviews.
DoL also issued a set of frequently asked questions on health benefit and retirement benefit issues. The final rule is available here.
NIH Announces COVID-19 Testing Technologies Initiative
Today, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative, which aims to speed up innovation, development, and commercialization of COVID-19 testing technologies. In partnership with the FDA, CDC, and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, RADx will provide $1.5 billion in funding (allocated in the recent COVID-19 stimulus) for research into early-stage innovative technologies.
As part of this initiative, NIH has created a testing challenge that will fund up to $500 million over all phases of development. Applicants will go through a three-phase selection process, and finalists will be matched with technical, business, and manufacturing experts. The initiative’s overarching goal is to make accurate tests available to all Americans by the end of summer 2020.
More information is available here.
Bipartisan Group of Public Health Leaders Request Funding for Testing, Tracing, and Isolation
On April 27th, a bipartisan group of public health leaders, led by former CMS acting administrator Andy Slavitt and former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, sent a letter (available here) to the leaders of Congress proposing a $46.5 billion plan that would support states with efforts to scale testing, contact tracing, and self-isolation capacity. Specifically, funding would be used for:
- Expansion of the contact tracing workforce ($12 billion);
- Utilization of vacant hotels for voluntary self-isolation facilities ($4.5 billion); and
- Provision of income support for individuals in voluntary self-isolation ($30 billion for 18 months of support at $50 per person per day).
The letter also urges the government to recognize that primary care physicians are needed as the referral sources for testing and contact tracing and encourages Medicare to establish referral payment codes for such practices to use.
The letter urges Congress to consider this additional funding in upcoming legislation, and recommends the funding be allocated in the form of block grants to states and territories twice annually based on projected case counts, testing capabilities, and availability of data tools. Unspent funds would be returned to the federal government upon the availability of a vaccine and successful containment of the virus.
White House Releases Testing Overview and Blueprint
Today, the White House released a pair of documents called the Testing Overview and Testing Blueprint as part of the President’s “Opening Up America Again” initiative. The Overview document describes “opening up” as an eight-stage process and suggests that seven stages are already complete or under way. The eighth stage would be to “coordinate with governors to support testing plans and rapid response programs.” However, the documents contain no specific timeline for enacting any specific measures. Instead, they state that the federal government will continue to focus on:
- Providing expedited approvals for test and testing equipment;
- Keeping procedural guidance on test administration up to date;
- Partnering with the private sector to continue development of new tests;
- Identifying best practices and offering technical assistance to State or local governments; and
- Acting as supplier of last resort.
The Overview is available here and the Blueprint is available here.