Email, text messages and a website can show good faith when the mail cannot get through.
The disaster relief notice treats electronic delivery as a good-faith way to reach participants. This page explains what the notice says, how the ordinary safe harbor still works and how to prepare.
Where This Page Fits.
General information, not legal advice. Each claim on this page is tied to the statute, rule or agency notice cited in the Laws And Sources section.
EBSA Disaster Relief For Group Health Plans
The overview: what disaster relief is, how a notice is built and what Michigan employers do before one is issued.
ERISA Section 518 Relief For Plan Notices
How late notices and disclosures are excused when you act in good faith and deliver as soon as administratively practicable.
Documenting And Restarting Deadlines After A Disaster
What to record, how to restart ordinary clocks and how contribution deposits fit.
Electronic Means As Good Faith.
Notice 2024-01 says that good-faith acts include using electronic alternative means of communicating with plan participants and beneficiaries. It names email, text messages and continuous access websites, for participants the fiduciary reasonably believes have effective access to them.
That sentence sits inside the section 518 relief for late notices. It is not a general rewrite of the delivery rules. The notice treats electronic delivery as evidence that you are trying to reach people, which is the heart of the good-faith test described on our section 518 page.
The Safe Harbor Still Exists.
Outside a disaster, 29 CFR 2520.104b-1(c) sets the safe harbor for electronic delivery of Title I documents. It reaches employees who can effectively access documents where they are expected to work and for whom the employer’s system is an integral part of the job, and other covered individuals who have affirmatively consented. The delivery system must be designed to confirm receipt, protect personal information, follow the style and content rules for each document and offer a paper copy on request. The recipient must also get a notice explaining the document’s significance if that is not obvious, and the right to a paper copy.
Consent from people outside the work-access group has to follow a clear statement of the document types covered, the right to withdraw at any time without charge, how to update an address, the right to a paper copy and the hardware or software needed. We read the disaster notice as an added good-faith route, not a replacement for the safe harbor, and the notice does not say otherwise.
Before You Need It.
Three habits make the good-faith route usable. First, keep personal email addresses and mobile numbers current for everyone on the plan, not only work addresses. Second, keep a benefits website or portal that opens on a phone and does not depend on the office network. Third, ask your COBRA vendor and administrator which channels they can use and how they log delivery.
Choose a mailing address that is not the building most likely to be affected, such as a registered agent or a second office, for returned mail. None of this requires a disaster to be in the news. It is ordinary hygiene for a plan that has to reach people on a deadline.
Common Misreadings.
Sending only to a work email when the office is closed. The notice speaks of participants who reasonably have effective access, and a closed office may mean they do not.
Treating a text message as a complete notice. The notice addresses good faith, not content requirements, so the notice itself still has to say what the rule requires.
Losing the proof. Save send logs, bounce-back notices and screenshots of posted content with the date and the audience.
Related Rules And Tools.
DOL Proposed Rule On Electronic Delivery Of Health Plan Notices
A proposed rule on electronic delivery of health plan notices.
COBRA Notices Employers Must Send
The notices in the COBRA cycle and who sends each.
Employee Notices
The notices employers owe plan participants.
A Compliance Calendar For Your Plan Year
A plan-year view of the dates that matter.
Laws And Sources
EBSA Disaster Relief Notice 2024-01: The worked example: Hurricanes Helene and Milton, the covered areas, incident periods, the May 1, 2025 end date and the conditions attached.
EBSA Disaster Relief Page: The Department of Labor list of current disaster relief notices. Check it for any Michigan declaration.
ERISA Section 518, 29 U.S.C. 1148: The statute that lets the Secretary of Labor disregard a period of up to one year for plans affected by a declared disaster.
29 CFR 2520.104b-1: The disclosure rule, including the electronic delivery safe harbor in paragraph (c).
Quick Answers.
Can we email plan notices after a disaster?
Notice 2024-01 lists email as a good-faith way to reach participants and beneficiaries the fiduciary reasonably believes have effective access to it. It does not remove the content rules for the notice itself.
Do text messages count as delivery under the disaster notice?
The notice names text messages among the electronic means that can show good faith. Treat a text as one channel in a record of reasonable efforts, and follow up through another channel where you can.
What proof of electronic delivery should we keep?
The ordinary safe harbor looks for a system designed to confirm receipt, such as return receipts or bounce-back notices. Keep send logs, bounce-backs and dated copies of what you posted.
The Rest Of This Series.
Health Plan Deadlines Extended In A Disaster
Which COBRA, special enrollment, claims, appeal and external review deadlines the joint notice can move, and what the ordinary clocks are.
Form M-1 And Form 5500 Disaster Relief
How MEWA reports and annual returns follow IRS relief, and who counts as directly affected.
How EBSA Disaster Relief Gets Triggered
From a federal declaration to a published notice with an incident period and an end date, and why to watch each one.
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