The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has decided to let major new group disability insurance claim review standards take effect April 1, officials announced today.
The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), the DOL division in charge of employee benefits matters, agreed in November to push the effective date back to April 1, from Jan. 1, to give disability insurers, employers, and benefit plan administrators and trade groups more time to prove that the new regulations would hurt the group disability market.
The DOL received about 200 comment letters after it postponed the effective date of the regulations, but "only a few comments responded substantively to the department's request for quantitative data to support assertions that the final rule would drive up disability benefit plan costs by more than the department had predicted, cause an increase in litigation, and consequently reduce workers' access to disability insurance protections,' officials say in an announcement of the decision.
"The information provided in the comments did not establish that the final rule imposes unnecessary regulatory burdens or significantly impairs workers' access to disability insurance benefits," officials say.
DOL officials completed work on the group disability claim regulations shortly before Donald Trump became president.
A copy of the regulations is available here.
DOL officials have also uphold some other Obama-era standards in recent months.
