The Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974 has been revised to include a final regulation that will change the minimum requirements for benefits claims. The new regulation is effective 1/20/01 (is it a coincidence that this occurs on Innauguration Day?).

The new regulation establishes new standards for processing claims under group health plans and plans providing disability payments. The new standards are intended to ensure more timely benefit determinations, to improve access to information on which a benefit determination is made, and to assure that participants and beneficiaries will be afforded a full and fair review of denied claims.

When announcing the new rule, President Clinton urged further legislative reform of managed healthcare, saying that what Americans needed was "a real, enforceable patients' bill of rights."

View the entire final rule.