The U.S. Department of Labor says it and other agencies will give members of the public until Dec. 5 to react to a Form 5500 update proposal.
"Based on the requests from a range of stakeholder groups, the agencies have decided to extend the public comment period on the proposed forms revisions," officials say in a notice set to appear tomorrow in the Federal Register.
The 5500 is to benefit plans what the Form 1040 is to households. Benefit plans use the form to report on their activities to the Labor Department and the Internal Revenue Service.
The Employee Benefits Security Administration, a Labor Department division that's working with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. and the Internal Revenue Service on the 5500 revision project, wants to add a group health plan reporting form, Schedule J, to the 5500 packet.
EBSA wants to require all group plans, including very small group health plans, to send in Schedule Js, to give it and other health policymakers more information about the state of group health market.
The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that the Labor Department, not state insurance regulators, must manage any efforts to collect claim data or other data from group health plans.
EBSA published the revision proposal in the Federal Register July 21 and originally set an Oct. 4 filing deadline.
For employers that sought a routine filing extension, the filing deadline for the 2015 5500 is Oct. 15.
