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All group health plans subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) are required to provide participants with a summary plan description (SPD). An SPD must be written in a manner calculated to be understood by the average plan participant and must be sufficiently comprehensive to inform participants about their rights and obligations under the plan.
The SPD must be automatically distributed to plan participants by certain deadlines. It also must be provided upon a participant’s request. The SPD must include specific types of information, such as the plan’s eligibility rules.
There are serious legal consequences associated with not complying with ERISA’s requirements for SPDs. For example, a plan sponsor can be charged up to $110 per day if does not provide the SPD within 30 days after a participant’s request.
This Compliance Overview addresses many of the commonly asked questions about SPDs. It also contains a checklist for the basic information that is required in an SPD.
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