The Biden administration announced on January 30 that the COVID-19 national emergency and the public health emergency will be coming to an end after May 11, 2023. The national emergency is currently set to expire on March 1, while the public health emergency is set to expire on April 11. The President intends to extend both of these emergency declarations through May 11, at which point in time he will issue a declaration to end the emergencies.

As you may recall, the COVID national emergency has been in place since March of 2020 and extends, among other things, COBRA election periods, deadlines for COBRA payments, special enrollment periods under ERISA and ERISA claims deadlines. These deadline extensions added an additional layer of administrative complexity to plans, and most employers will be happy to see these extensions sunset and return to administering COBRA and their plans in the same manner as they had done pre-pandemic. Keep in mind though, these deadline extensions will end 60 days after the end of the COVID national emergency.

Meanwhile, the COVID public health emergency has been in place since late January 2020, and primarily impacts certain Medicare, Medicaid and group health plan benefits related to COVID, including vaccines, testing and treatment, as well as the temporary expansion of telehealth benefits. While it will soon be “closing time” for many of these additional benefits and flexibilities, it’s worth noting that certain COVID public health emergency benefits, such as the expansion of telehealth, were extended beyond the end of the public health emergency declaration as part of the recently enacted Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023.