BENEFITS DIGEST

The ERISA Industry Committee collects reactions to the Labor Department proposal that would let health plans deliver required documents electronically by default, with paper available on request. The coalition voices in the roundup want the option extended more broadly across welfare plans, and the $19.5 billion savings estimate the piece cites belongs to that wider extension, not the proposal as written. Its survey figures run 91% of participants with internet access and 78% preferring electronic delivery. This is advocacy for a pending proposal, and nothing changes for plans yet.

Boutwell Fay walks through the Labor Department’s July 23 proposal to add a notice-and-access electronic-delivery safe harbor for group health plan disclosures, a proposal whose comment period closed September 21. The design would permit a notice linking directly to documents without a login barrier, with an initial paper notice, a paper-copy right, an opt-out, combined annual notices at intervals no longer than 14 months, and documents kept available for at least a year or until replaced. The department’s own estimate puts annual savings at $402 million across 2.8 million plans, and the proposed effective date is the January 1 after a final rule publishes. The firm’s emphasis is implementation, vendor arrangements and data security, and nothing is final yet.

A warehouse associate who represented himself largely lost his benefits case against Amazon after a bench trial before Judge Drew Tipton over the company’s Texas occupational injury benefit plan, but won two rulings that other employers should notice. First, the plan’s one-year limitations period, though reasonable under Heimeshoff, was unenforceable for all three injury claims; two appeal denials never disclosed the period, and the third stated the period but omitted the calendar date it expired, which the disability claims regulation has separately required since April 2018. The court noted no circuit has decided the calendar-date question and declined to enforce the deadline anyway. Second, Amazon owes a $6,050 statutory penalty for furnishing the plan document as an email attachment the claimant credibly testified he could not open; emailing a document is not delivery reasonably calculated to ensure actual receipt unless the electronic disclosure safe harbor is actually satisfied, and nobody followed up. Claims teams should pull a sample denial letter this week and check for a concrete expiration date, and make sure requested plan documents actually reach the employee.

The comment period closed September 21 on the proposal to let group health plans deliver required notices electronically. As Hall Benefits Law explains, the optional safe harbor works by posting documents online and notifying participants where to find them, by email or through a web portal, mirroring what retirement plans have had since 2020, and anyone who prefers paper can opt out and receive paper copies. It would cover summary plan descriptions, summaries of benefits and coverage, COBRA notices, and HIPAA special-enrollment notices, among others. The website, which can be a mobile app, must keep documents up at least a year, be searchable, and let users print or save. One caution from [Marsh's alert](https://www.mercer.com/en-us/insights/us-health-news/dol-proposed-rule-would-ease-e-delivery-by-erisa-group-health-plans/) for sponsors planning ahead. A wrap document, a single document combining several benefit programs, may not fully qualify, because the safe harbor covers group health plan disclosures only.

Comments closed September 21 on DOL's proposed electronic-disclosure option for group health plans. Under the proposal, plans could email a notice that documents are available online, but couldn't use that option to email the documents themselves because they may contain sensitive health information. Participants could request unlimited free paper copies. A single summary plan description covering medical, life, and disability benefits presents a complication. The new option would cover the medical benefits, while life and disability benefits would remain subject to the existing delivery rules, which allow workplace computer access or the recipient's agreement to electronic delivery. DOL requested comments on how to address the gap.

A reader asked whether participants may demand all four quarterly statements on paper or only the single annual statement the newer rule guarantees. The Groom Law Group attorneys behind the Ask the Experts column answer that the 2002 right never went away. A participant may request a paper copy of any document furnished electronically, quarterly statements included, no matter which e-delivery safe harbor the plan uses, so sponsors need a process for tracking and honoring those requests.

A reminder that the July 23 proposed rule extending a notice-and-access electronic delivery safe harbor to ERISA group health plans is open for comment through September 21. The proposal mirrors the 2020 retirement-plan safe harbor but is website-only, with no direct email option, reflecting HIPAA privacy concerns, and it preserves unlimited free paper copies and a full opt-out for participants.

Groom collects its August publications in one place, spanning DB plan funding rules, 45S credit and Saver's Match guidance, dependent care nondiscrimination, the wellness program enforcement relief, the e-delivery proposal, and the tobacco surcharge litigation.

In late July, the Department of Labor proposed new regulations that would extend the notice-and-access electronic disclosure model that the DOL finalized in 2020 for retirement plans to group health plans.

The U.S. Department of Labor has drafted a regulation designed to facilitate employers' use of electronic delivery systems as the default option when dealing with the Employee Benefits Security Administration and other federal agencies.

The July 23 proposed rule would give group health plan administrators an additional safe harbor for electronically furnishing required disclosures to participants and beneficiaries.

On July 22, 2026, the DOL issued a proposed rule with a new safe harbor allowing group health plan administrators to provide required ERISA documents to participants and beneficiaries electronically.

On July 22, 2026, the DOL published a proposed rule that would create a similar safe harbor for group health plans governed by ERISA that was adopted in 2020.

Another firm read on the DOL's proposed e-delivery safe harbor for group health plans: who counts as covered, the notice mechanics, and how the proposal extends the 2020 retirement-plan framework to the health side.

Groom walks through the DOL's proposed e-delivery safe harbor for group health plans: who counts as a covered individual, the notice-of-internet-availability mechanics, and where the proposal diverges from the 2020 retirement-plan framework. Comments are due September 21.

which participant communications could move to e-delivery, and the notice-and-access mechanics sponsors would need to build.

Warner Norcross joins the e-disclosure commentary with the practitioner's sigh of relief in the title: the DOL's proposed additional safe harbor would let group health plan administrators furnish required disclosures electronically.

Sidley joins the e-disclosure commentary, analyzing the DOL's proposed notice-and-access safe harbor for group health plans and what sponsors should weigh before relying on it.

Troutman's take on the DOL's proposed electronic-disclosure rules for group health plans, joining the Spencer Fane and Kilpatrick analyses readers saw Friday: a notice-and-access safe harbor that would make electronic delivery of required notices substantially easier.

After 24 years, the Department of Labor is looking to leave “snail mail” behind. Proposed electronic disclosure rules would make it easier for ERISA-covered group health plans to deliver required notices electronically while preserving important participant protections.

The Department of Labor has issued a proposed rule to create a new, optional electronic disclosure safe harbor for ERISA group health plans. If finalized, this proposal would allow the provision of required disclosures electronically to a broader group through a notice-and-access framework.

Quarles & Brady breaks down the DOL's proposed safe harbor letting group health plans deliver required disclosures electronically by default, the latest in the wave of firm commentary on the July 23 proposal.

Cooley's alert examines how the proposed electronic delivery rules would affect employer disclosure obligations for equity compensation plans.

The U.S. Department of Labor issued a proposed rule that would bring group health plans in line with the electronic disclosure rules already applicable to retirement plans, creating a safe harbor that lets health plans deliver required disclosures electronically by default.

On July 23, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (“EBSA”) published a proposed rule (the “Proposed Rule”) that would create a new, additional safe harbor for group health plan administrators to furnish participant and beneficiary disclosures electronically by default.

On July 23, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued proposed regulations that would establish a new safe harbor allowing group health plan administrators to use electronic media to furnish documents and information to participants and beneficiaries under ERISA.

Aon's compliance team breaks down the DOL's newly proposed electronic disclosure safe harbor for group health plans, including who counts as a covered individual, what documents are covered, the required Notice of Internet Availability, and a rule that blocks disclosure by email itself due to PHI concerns. Comments on the proposed rule are due September 21, 2026.

The Department of Labor recently issued proposed regulations that would implement sweeping revisions to long-standing electronic disclosure safe harbors for health and welfare plans.

On July 23, 2026, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued proposed regulations that would significantly expand the ability of group health plans to furnish required ERISA disclosures electronically (“Proposed Rule”).

a change DOL estimates could lift e-delivery rates from about 68% to 90% and save $402 million a year.

This proposed rule sets forth a new, additional safe harbor for group health plan administrators to use electronic media (e.g., email or web portal) to furnish documents and information to participants and beneficiaries of plans subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).

Today, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a proposed rule that would create a new, optional electronic disclosure safe harbor specifically for group health plans.

EBSA's proposed rule, on public inspection today and scheduled for Federal Register publication July 23, would establish rules for electronic disclosure of required documents by ERISA group health plans. The 2020 e-delivery safe harbor covered only retirement plans; this 96-page proposal addresses the health and welfare side. The comment deadline will be set at publication.