The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has decided to let major newgroup disability insurance claim reviewstandards take effect April 1, officials have announced.

The Employee Benefits Security Administration(EBSA), the DOL division in charge of employee benefits matters,agreed in November to push the effective dateback to April 1, from Jan. 1, to give disability insurers,employers, and benefit plan administrators and trade groups moretime to prove that the new regulations would hurt the groupdisability market.

The DOL received about 200 comment letters after it postponedthe effective date of the regulations, but "only a few commentsresponded substantively to the department's request forquantitative data to support assertions that the final rule woulddrive up disability benefit plan costs by more than the departmenthad predicted, cause an increase in litigation, and consequentlyreduce workers' access to disability insurance protections,'officials say in an announcement of the decision.

"The information provided in the comments did not establish thatthe final rule imposes unnecessary regulatory burdens orsignificantly impairs workers' access to disability insurancebenefits," officials say.

DOL officials completed work on the group disability claimregulations shortly before Donald Trump became president.

DOL officials have also uphold some other Obama-era standards inrecent months.

On Thursday, DOL officials released proposed association health plan regulations that wouldprohibit an association health plan from using health statusinformation other than age when deciding whether to admit anemployer, or when setting rates for an employer's employees.

In November, at a House hearing, DOL Secretary Alexander Acostatestified at a House committee hearing that, although DOL has putoff using some compliance guidelines associated with the DOLfiduciary rule, the rule itself is still in effect,and the principle that retirement advisors must act in customers'best interest is still in effect.

The regulations

The new group disability claim regulations:

• Set standards for the completeness of claim denial notices.

• Let claimants respond to new information while claim reviews arein progress.

• Establish new claim reviewer impartiality standards.

• Give claimants the ability to go to court if plan administratorsviolate the claim review standards.

Advocates for group disability claimants argue that disabilityplans now treat claimants poorly, reject many claimants who havealready qualified for Social Security Disability Insurancebenefits, and use procedures that conflict with the goals of theEmployee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).

Group disability insurers, employers, benefit planadministrators, and groups for disability plan and sponsors haveargued that the new regulations will lead to more, time-consumingexchanges of information between plans and claimants, and that thecourt access provisions could lead to a big increase inlitigation.