View Information Collection Request (ICR) Package

OMB Control No: 1210-0123	ICR Reference No: 201006-1210-002
Status: Historical Active	Previous ICR Reference No: 201004-1210-004
Agency/Subagency: DOL/EBSA	Agency Tracking No:
Title: Notice Requirements of the Health Care Continuation Coverage Provisions
Type of Information Collection: Revision of a currently approved collection	Common Form ICR: No
Type of Review Request: Regular
OIRA Conclusion Action: Approved without change	Conclusion Date: 09/01/2010
Retrieve Notice of Action (NOA)	Date Received in OIRA: 07/30/2010
Terms of Clearance:

	Inventory as of this Action	Requested	Previously Approved
Expiration Date	09/30/2013	36 Months From Approved	08/31/2010
Responses	15,662,333	0	23,737,957
Time Burden (Hours)	503,815	0	0
Cost Burden (Dollars)	20,217,778	0	25,187,739

Abstract: The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) provides that under certain circumstances participants and beneficiaries of group health plans that satisfy the definition of qualified beneficiaries under COBRA may elect to continue group health coverage temporarily following events known as qualifying events that would otherwise result in loss of coverage. COBRA provides that the Secretary of Labor (the Secretary) has the authority under section 608 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to carry out the provisions of Part 6 of title I of ERISA. The Conference Report that accompanied COBRA authorized the Secretary to issue regulations implementing the notice and disclosure requirements of COBRA. Under the regulatory guidelines, plan administrators are required to distribute notices as follows: a general notice to be distributed to all participants in group health plans subject to COBRA; an employer notice that must be completed by the employer upon the occurrence of a qualifying event; a notice and election form to be sent to a participant upon the occurrence of a qualifying event that might cause the participant to lose group health coverage; an employee notice that may be completed by a qualified beneficiary upon the occurrence of certain qualifying events such as divorce or disability; and, two other notices, one of early termination and the other a notice of unavailability. Also included in the ICR are two model notices that the Department believes will help reduce costs for service providers in preparing and delivering notices to comply with the regulations. On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, Public Law 111-5. ARRA includes a requirement that the Secretary of Labor (the Secretary), in consultation with the Secretaries of the Treasury and Health and Human Services, develop model notices. These models are for use by group health plans and other entities that, pursuant to ARRA, must provide notices of the availability of premium reductions and additional election periods for health care continuation coverage.

Authorizing Statute(s): US Code: 29 USC 1166 Name of Law: Employee Retirement Income Security Act

Citations for New Statutory Requirements: None

Associated Rulemaking Information
RIN:	Stage of Rulemaking:	Federal Register Citation:	Date:
	Not associated with rulemaking

Federal Register Notices & Comments
60-day Notice:	Federal Register Citation:	Citation Date:
	75 FR 16841	04/02/2010
30-day Notice:	Federal Register Citation:	Citation Date:
	75 FR 146	07/30/2010
Did the Agency receive public comments on this ICR? No

ICR Summary of Burden

	Total Approved	Previously Approved	Change Due to Agency Discretion	Change Due to Adjustment in Estimate
Annual Number of Responses	15,662,333	23,737,957	-8,500,000	424,376
Annual Time Burden (Hours)	503,815	0	0	503,815
Annual Cost Burden (Dollars)	20,217,778	25,187,739	-6,800,000	1,830,039

Burden increases because of Program Change due to Agency Discretion: No

Burden Increase Due to:

Burden decreases because of Program Change due to Agency Discretion: No

Burden Reduction Due to:

Short Statement: The biggest adjustment to this to the PRA burden is removal of the AARA COBRA notification requirements. Congress did not extend the ARRA COBRA subsidy program; therefore, the Department estimates that no additional notices will be issued to affected individuals and no hour or cost burden will be incurred by the affected entities. Most of the other adjustments to the PRA burden are relatively minor and are due to updates in costs (both labor and mailing), the use of more recent data to reflect shifts in demographics and insurance coverage, and the absence of start-up costs. Hourly labor costs actually declined since the last PRA, due to the absence of start-up costs and the hourly rate of an administrative assistant in the DC-metro area being substantially lower ($25 per hour as compared to $34 per hour) than previously reported. In addition, the previous PRA assumed a much lower termination rate (less than half) for insured workers than recent data indicates is appropriate. Adjusting this assumption more than doubled the number of Employer Notices and increased Plan Administrator Election Notices by roughly fifty percent. Finally, the previous PRA mistakenly included only small plan participants in its statement regarding the number of participants subject to COBRA notification. This error did not affect any of the subsequent calculations.

Annual Cost to Federal Government: $0

Does this IC contain surveys, censuses, or employ statistical methods? No

Is the Supporting Statement intended to be a Privacy Impact Assessment required by the E-Government Act of 2002? No

Is this ICR related to the Affordable Care Act [Pub. L. 111-148 & 111-152]? No

Is this ICR related to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, [Pub. L. 111-203]? Uncollected

Is this ICR related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA)? Yes

Is this ICR related to the Pandemic Response? Uncollected

Agency Contact: Chris Cosby 202 693-8540

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