Modifications to ERISA, COBRA & HIPAA
According to the Supreme Court’s ruling, in United States v. Windsor, section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional. In a recent release from the DOL, the terms “spouse” and “marriage” in Title I of ERISA and in related agency regulations will generally be read to include same-sex couples legally married in any state that recognizes such marriages, regardless of where they currently live. Among other requirements, Title I includes the health coverage continuation provisions of COBRA and the HIPAA portability provisions.
The Supreme Court concluded that section 3 of DOMA “undermines both the public and private significance of state-sanctioned same sex marriages” and found that “no legitimate purpose” overcomes Section 3’s “purpose and effect to disparage and to injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect. Therefore, since it would be too cumbersome (and complex) for employers and plan administrators to track state marriage laws and employees married in a state that recognizes same sex marriage and has since then changed their place of domicile to a state that does not recognize same sex marriage, employers should honor the law of the state in which the marriage was legal. In other words, employers are bound to honor same sex marriages providing the license was obtained in a state which recognizes same sex marriages providing it was the employees former place of domocile. For more details, please refer to the DOL website, Technical Release No. 2013-04.
