When Four Pages Really Means Eight: Summaries of Benefit Coverage

The federal agencies responsible for implementing last year’s health reform law proposed regulations last fall that would require insurers and plan sponsors to distribute “plain English,” four page benefit summaries (referred to as “summaries of benefits and coverage” or “SBCs”) to health plan enrollees. Federal regulators avoided the space constraints by interpreting “four pages to mean four double-sided pages, effectively expanding the SBC to eight pages. Mark Holloway and Ed Fensholt, attorneys and Directors of Compliance Services with Lockton Benefit Group recently wrote an article for Benefits Law Journal with details about the SBCs and surrounding regulations. The article, called Feds Propose Rules on New Four-Page Health Plan Summaries and Advance Notice Requirement for Plan Changes is available here.