Tag: Disability

Updated Disability Claims Procedures Go Into Effect April 2, 2018

The Department of Labor’s final rules updating the procedures for disability claims goes into effect on April 2, 2018. This post summarizes the new rules; which plans are affected by the new rules; and the next steps affected plans should take.

Affected Plans

The Claims Procedure Regulations at C.F.R. §2560.503-1 affect all ERISA Plans, including pension plans such as defined benefit and 401(k) plans, welfare benefit plans like medical and disability insurance plans. As a practical matter, the changes to the rules for disability claims only impacts plans that actually make disability determinations. Therefore, if your pension or 401(k) Plan relies on disability determinations made by a third party, like the Social Security Administration, you should not need to make any changes to your plan documents or your claims procedures as a result of the new rules.

Next Steps

Affected plans have until December 31, 2018 to adopt the necessary plan amendments, but the amendment will need to be effective, and Plans will need to comply with the revised rules, as of April 2, 2018. Affected Plans will also need to update their Summary Plan Descriptions to reflect the new rules.

Summary of the Changes

The new rules amend the claims procedure regulation at 29 C.F.R. §2560.503-1 for disability benefits to require that plans, plan fiduciaries, and insurance providers comply with additional procedural protections when dealing with disability benefit claimants. Specifically, the final rule includes the following changes in the requirements for the processing of claims and appeals for disability benefits:

  • Basic Disclosure Requirements. Benefit denial notices must contain a more complete discussion of why the plan denied a claim and the standards used in making the decision. For example, the notices must include a discussion of the basis for disagreeing with a disability determination made by the Social Security Administration if presented by the claimant in support of his or her claim.
  • Right to Claim File and Internal Protocols. Benefit denial notices must include a statement that the claimant is entitled to receive, upon request, the entire claim file and other relevant documents. Previously, this statement was required only in notices denying benefits on appeal. Benefit denial notices also have to include the internal rules, guidelines, protocols, standards or other similar criteria of the plan that were used in denying a claim or a statement that none were used. Previously, instead of including these internal rules and protocols, benefit denial notices have the option of including a statement that such rules and protocols were used in denying the claim and that a copy will be provided to the claimant upon request.
  • Right to Review and Respond to New Information Before Final Decision. The new rule prohibits plans from denying benefits on appeal based on new or additional evidence or rationales that were not included when the benefit was denied at the claims stage, unless the claimant is given notice and a fair opportunity to respond.
  • Avoiding Conflicts of Interest. Plans must ensure that disability benefit claims and appeals are adjudicated in a manner designed to ensure the independence and impartiality of the persons involved in making the decision. For example, a claims adjudicator or medical or vocational expert could not be hired, promoted, terminated or compensated based on the likelihood of the person denying benefit claims.
  • Deemed Exhaustion of Claims and Appeal Processes. If plans do not adhere to all claims processing rules, the claimant is deemed to have exhausted the administrative remedies available under the plan, unless the violation was the result of a minor error and other specified conditions are met. If the claimant is deemed to have exhausted the administrative remedies available under the plan, the claim or appeal is deemed denied on review without the exercise of discretion by a fiduciary and the claimant may immediately pursue his or her claim in court. The revised rule also provides that the plan must treat a claim as re-filed on appeal upon the plan’s receipt of a court’s decision rejecting the claimant’s request for review.
  • Certain Coverage Rescissions are Adverse Benefit Determinations Subject to the Claims Procedure Protections. Rescissions of coverage, including retroactive terminations due to alleged misrepresentation of fact (e.g. errors in the application for coverage) must be treated as adverse benefit determinations, thereby triggering the plan’s appeals procedures. Rescissions for non-payment of premiums are not covered by this provision.
  • Notices Written in a Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Manner. The final rule requires that benefit denial notices have to be provided in a culturally and linguistically appropriate manner in certain situations.

Arizona’s New Paid Sick Time Law Goes Into Effect July 1, 2017

Arizona voters recently approved Proposition 206, which will increase the minimum wage to $10 per hour, effective as of January 1, 2017, and provides all Arizona employees (other than employees of the federal or state government) paid sick time (PST) as of July 1, 2017.

This post summarizes the key issues that employers will need to address before July 1, 2017. We will be providing more information and will assist clients in drafting a compliant policy in the coming months, as we expect clarification on the notice requirements in rules that will be issued by the Industrial Commission of Arizona (ICA).

Employers will likely want to create a new PST policy, which they provide to employees before 7/1/2017, and which explains the employees’ rights to PST under the new Arizona statute.

Coordination with Other Policies

In most cases, employers will want to make their PST policy separate from any existing Paid Time Off (PTO) policy, even though the two policies will refer to each other. In addition, existing PTO policies may need to be refined to ensure they work as smoothly as possible with the new PST requirements.

Your PST policy will need to coordinate with your FMLA leave policies, as the two types of leave may overlap in some instances, but they are not synonymous. Employers should also consider coordinating their PST policy with any self funded short term disability policy, to ensure that they do not have to pay out twice for the same leave (once under the STD policy and once under the PST policy)

PTO Accrual

  • If you are an employer of fewer than 15 employees, employees must be allowed to accrue and use up to 24 hours of PST per year and if you are an employer of 15 employees or more, employees must be allowed to accrue and use up to 40 hours of PST per year (the time is accrued 1 hour for every 30 hours worked)
  • FLSA Exempt employees are presumed to work 40 hours per week; unless they actually work less than 40 hours per week in which case they can accrue PST based on actual hours worked.
  • Time taken for PST can also reduce available PTO (if your PTO policy so provides).

Employees can take PST for Four Broad Reasons:

  • Their own mental or physical illness, injury or health condition, need for diagnosis, treatment or care, or for preventive care
  • Care of a family member with the above
  • Absences necessary due to certain domestic violence, sexual violence, abuse or stalking
  • Certain business closures due to public health emergencies.

Optional Policy Provisions

In adopting a PST policy, employers will need to consider the following (we anticipate providing a checklist in the Spring of next year to help clients draft their policy to incorporate these choices):

  • Define a PST year: Your policy will need to define when the PST year begins. We generally recommend January 1, unless your company uses a different month for the beginning of the work year or your welfare benefits plan year.
  • Define the increments in which the employee can use the accrued PST: may be used in the smaller of either an hourly increment or the smallest increment that your payroll system uses to account for absences or use of other time.
  • Termination of Employment: Will you pay employees out for accrued PST upon separation of employment? Most employers will not pay it out.
  • Carryover of PST or payout unused accrued PST at the end of the year? Employers have the option to pay out unused PST at the end of each year, or to carry it over.
    • We recommend that most employers not payout the unused PST and instead allow the time to carryover each year. The employee will continue to accrue additional PST (up to 24 or 40 additional hours). However, the impact of this is limited because:
      • employees cannot use more than 24/40 hours of PST per year, regardless of how much PST they carry over and end up accruing in the new year, and
      • employers do not have to pay out PST upon termination of employment. The carry over therefore simply allows the employee to have the availability to use PST hours that were accrued and unused during the prior year – i.e. to use PST immediately in the subsequent year, as needed. The financial impact can be limited for most employers if their PTO policy is properly drafted to ensure this time is also deducted from an employee’s PTO bank.
  • Delay Availability of PST for New Hires (after 7/1/2017)? Newly hired employees will accrue PST once they commence employment, however employers may require that they wait until 90 calendar days after they commence employment before they can use any accrued PST.
  • Who in your organization will keep record of the PST? : Employers must keep records for 4 years.
  • Will you allow employees to borrow PST?: Most employers will not allow borrowing of PST. However, many will revise the PTO policies to allow borrowing of PTO, if it is used for PST reasons (thereby increasing the likelihood that you will in fact reduce the amount of PTO available by each hour of PST taken).
  • What Procedures will you Adopt for Requiring Notice before an Employee Takes PST (both foreseeable and non-foreseeable)? (and how will you coordinate that with your current policy for requesting PTO)?
    • If you require notice of the need to use PST, even where the need is not foreseeable, your policy must include the procedures for the employee to provided notice.
  • What circumstances will you require proof of the need for PST (other than a request)?
    • You may request “reasonable documentation” that earned PST is used for a proper purpose only where an employee seeks to use three or more consecutive work days of PST.
    • “Reasonable documentation” is defined as “documentation signed by a health care professional indicating that the earned paid sick time is necessary.”
    • Where three or more consecutive PST days are used in cases of domestic violence, sexual violence, abuse, or stalking, the statute provides alternative forms of reasonable documentation that may be requested, such as a police report, a protective order, or a signed statement from the employee or other individual (a list of which appears in the statute) affirming that the employee was a victim of such acts.
    • If you currently require a doctor’s note for any single-day absence you will need to change that practice.

In addition to adopting a policy, and posting a required notice (a model of which the ICA will provide), employee pay statements must include or have enclosed a report of PST to include the following:

  • the amount of PST available;
  • the amount of PST taken to date; and
  • the dollar amount of PST paid year to date

We recommend clients wait until March/April of 2017 before drafting their PST policy and updating their PTO policies, because expected ICA rules will likely provide some guidance on the new law that may impact your policy choices. We anticipate providing clients a checklist in the Spring to select the features they would like in a PST, and to draft policies based on those choices. We expect we will be able to provide that service for a low flat fee. Look for details in the Spring.