Your Disability Benefits Claim May Be Impacted by the End of the COVID-19 National Emergency

The Biden Administration recently announced that it intends to end the COVID-19 National Emergency on May 11, 2023. If your short-term or long-term disability benefits were denied or terminated during the COVID-19 National Emergency, your ability to continue pursuing your claims could be affected as a result. Participants in employer-sponsored short-term and long-term disability insurance plans must appeal adverse benefit decisions within time limits set by the plan. Ordinarily, the time to appeal starts to run on the date the participants is notified of the adverse benefits decision. If a participant fails to appeal within the proper time limit, they may lose out on their ability to continue pursuing disability benefits. In the early months of the pandemic, the Department of Labor issued rules that extended the timeframes for many participants in ERISA benefits plans. Under the Department of Labor’s rules, employee benefits plans were required to disregard the period from March 1, 2020 until sixty (60) days after the announced end of the National Emergency or such other date announced by the Agencies in a future notification (the “Outbreak Period”) in determining many deadlines, including the date in which a disability benefits claim could be filed as well as the date an adverse benefit determination must be appealed. President Biden’s decision to end the COVID-19 National Emergency means that your time to apply for or appeal a denial or termination of disability benefits may start running on May 11, 2022. As a result, individuals with disability benefits claims should be aware that their deadline to assert a claim or appeal a claim may be coming up in the near future. Because failing to appeal in the right timeframe may result in a loss of benefits, it is important to talk to an experienced disability attorney who help you determine your claim’s deadlines. If your short-term or long-term disability benefits were denied or terminated during the COVID-19 National Emergency, our disability attorneys are experienced in appealing adverse benefit decisions and would be happy to speak with you. Call us at our Milwaukee office at 414.271.8650, our Madison office at 608.257.0040, or contact us here if you would like to discuss your claims.