Telehealth Relief Extended

On March 15, 2022, President Biden signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022 (CAA 2022) into law. The law extends relief that allowed individuals to access and use telehealth services without losing their eligibility for HSAs. The CARES Act first provided this relief. Before the CARES Act, most services (such as telehealth services) that provided significant medical care before the HDHP statutory minimum deductible was met could render individuals ineligible for HSAs. The CARES Act created an exception for telehealth services, but applied it to telehealth services performed after January 1, 2020, with respect to plans years that began on or before December 31, 2021. The CAA 2022 re-established this relief for services provided after March 31, 2022 and before January 1, 2023.

For a calendar year HDHP, this extension leaves a gap in the first three months of 2022. Individuals who have access to telehealth services during that time will not be eligible to contribute to their HSAs (although they are potentially eligible for the other nine months of the year).

Plans that choose to adopt the relief should be revised to reflect these changes, and the changes should be communicated to employees through an SMM.

The Fourth Circuit upheld the district court’s ruling regarding the first and third DOS; however, it reversed the district court’s rulings regarding the second DOS. The Fourth Circuit reasoned that the faulty HIPAA release did not excuse the carrier from an obligation to produce documents that did not contain protected information (such as the plan documents). In addition, the Fourth Circuit found that the carrier had a fiduciary duty under ERISA to notify the plaintiff of the problem with the HIPAA release and allow the plaintiff an opportunity to fix the problem. Since the failure to respond to the request for documents put the plaintiff at a disadvantage in the claim review process, the Fourth Circuit remanded the issues surrounding the second DOS back to the district court for another review.

Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022 »