At the 11th hour, on February 26, 2021, the Department of Labor
(DOL) issued
EBSA Disaster Relief Notice 2021-01 (the “Notice”)
to provide guidance on the duration of the COVID-related relief
previously provided by the DOL in Notice 2020-01 and by the DOL and
IRS in a separate joint notice (the 2020 Notices). Under the
2020 Notices, various timeframes under ERISA and the Internal
Revenue Code were to be disregarded, including for purposes of
filing claims for benefits, electing and paying for COBRA
continuation coverage, and requesting special enrollments. See our
previous alert
here.
The relief provided in the 2020 Notices began March 1, 2020 and
continued until 60 days after the announced end of the COVID
National Emergency or such other date announced by the relevant
agencies (the “Outbreak Period“). However, by
statute, the disregarded period for individual actions was limited
to one year from the date the individual action would otherwise
have been
