On January 5, 2018 the Department of Labor announced that April 1, 2018 will be the date on which the rules amending the claim regulations governing disability benefit claims will become applicable.  The original amendments to the regulations set January 1, 2018 as the effective date.  However, the Trump administration put that date on hold while it gathered additional commentary from the insurance industry, employer groups, consumer advocates and lawyers representing disability benefit claimants. After reviewing over 200 comments the DOL concluded that the input did not establish that the final rule "imposes unnecessary regulatory burdens or significantly impairs workers' access to disability insurance benefits."  Therefore, disability claim administrators should be prepared to apply the new regulations to disability claims submitted on or after April 1, 2018.

 

We prepared a summary of the new regulations back in January 2017 and we are including a link to that release here.  If you should need any assistance in training your claims professionals on how to comply with the new regulations please contact a member of the Life, Health, Disability and ERISA practice group.