What are the required health benefit plan notices?

By Holly Bengfort on August 3, 2026 at 11:00 AM

Offering a health benefit comes with important communication responsibilities for employers. Federal law requires you to provide certain notices that explain how your benefits work, employees' rights, and key enrollment information.

The required notices vary depending on the type of health benefit you offer, from traditional group health plans to health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs), including individual coverage HRAs (ICHRAs) and qualified small employer HRAs (QSEHRAs).

In this article, we'll cover the most common health benefit plan notices, when employers must distribute them, and how to stay compliant.

In this blog post, you'll learn:

Which health benefit plan notices employers must provide for group health plans, ICHRAs, and QSEHRAs.
When employers must distribute each notice.
Best practices for managing health benefit notices and reducing compliance risks throughout the year.

Why are health benefit notices important?

Health benefit notices help your workforce understand the employee benefits available to them and their rights under federal law.

They're required by several agencies, including the:

Department of Labor (DOL)
Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)

Providing required notices on time helps employers:

Meet federal compliance requirements
Reduce the risk of penalties
Improve employee understanding of their benefits
Support informed enrollment decisions

While there are annual notice requirements, you only need to provide others when employees first become eligible or when certain events occur.

Required notices for group health plans

If you offer a group health plan, you'll likely need to provide several required documents and notices¹.

Summary of benefits and coverage (SBC)

The summary of benefits and coverage (SBC) is a standardized document that explains what a health insurance plan covers. It also outlines how much employees can expect to pay for care.

The SBC includes information such as:

Covered benefits
Deductibles
Copayments and coinsurance
Out-of-pocket maximums
Coverage examples
A uniform glossary of common terms

Employers must provide an SBC:

During Open Enrollment
When an employee first becomes eligible
Upon request
Within certain timeframes after plan changes

Insurers for fully-insured group plans provide the SBC to employers, who must distribute it to employees. However, if you have a self-funded group plan, you’re responsible for creating and distributing the SBC (or working with a third-party administrator).

Summary plan description (SPD)

The summary plan description (SPD) explains how a health benefit plan operates. It also outlines participants' rights under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

An SPD typically includes:

Eligibility requirements
Enrollment procedures
Covered benefits
External review process disclosure
Claims and appeals processes
Participant rights
Plan administrator information

Employers generally must provide an SPD to newly covered participants within 90 days of enrollment. Employers must also distribute updated SPDs when significant health plan changes occur.

Plan documents

ERISA-covered health plans must also maintain formal written plan documents. Unlike an SPD, the official plan document establishes the legal terms governing the benefit plan.

While you don’t need to distribute the document to all employees, employers must provide it if they request it.

COBRA notices

Employers subject to COBRA must provide several notices that explain employees' rights to continue health coverage after certain qualifying events, such as termination or reduced work hours.

The main COBRA notices include:

Initial COBRA notice: Employers must provide this notice when employees and their spouses become covered by the group health plan. It explains their right to continue coverage if a qualifying event occurs in the future.
COBRA election notice: After a qualifying event, employers or plan administrators must provide an election notice explaining the individual's right to continue coverage, how to elect COBRA, and how much coverage will cost.
Notice of COBRA rights after qualifying events: Employers must notify their plan administrator when certain qualifying events occur, such as an employee's termination or reduction in hours. The plan administrator then provides the election notice to eligible individuals.
COBRA termination notice: If COBRA coverage ends before the maximum coverage period, individuals must receive a notice explaining why coverage is ending and when it will end.

HIPAA special enrollment notice

Employers must inform employees of their right to enroll outside of open enrollment after certain qualifying life events. Some qualifying life events include marriage, birth, adoption, or loss of other health coverage.

HIPAA notice of privacy practices

Employers that sponsor group health plans subject to HIPAA privacy rules must provide a notice of privacy practices² (NPP). This notice explains how the health plan may use and disclose protected health information (PHI) and outlines participants' privacy rights.

You must generally provide this notice when an individual enrolls in the plan and redistribute it if you update it.

Medicare Part D notice of creditable coverage

Employers that offer prescription drug coverage must tell Medicare-eligible individuals whether their coverage is creditable under Medicare Part D³.

If you’re offering a health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) such as a QSEHRA or ICHRA, you must notify employees that their coverage is not creditable under Medicare Part D. However, a new 2026 CMS⁴ rule is removing the requirement for HRAs to provide a notice of creditable coverage under § 423.56(b)(3) beginning in 2027.

Women's Health and Cancer Rights Act (WHCRA) notice

The Women's Health and Cancer Rights Act⁵ (WHCRA) requires group health plans that cover mastectomies to also cover certain reconstructive surgeries. Since this applies to most plans that offer medical or surgical coverage, most major medical plans require this notice. Employers generally must provide this notice when participants enroll and annually thereafter.

Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) notice

Employers in states that offer premium assistance programs must notify employees about potential opportunities for assistance through Medicaid or CHIP.

Marketplace notice

Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), employers subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) must provide a health insurance exchange notice to new employees.

The notice explains:

The existence of the health insurance marketplaces
How employees can access Marketplace coverage
How Marketplace coverage may affect eligibility for employer-sponsored health benefits

Employers generally must provide this notice within 14 days of an employee's start date.

Required notices for ICHRAs

An individual coverage HRA (ICHRA) has an additional notice requirement compared to a traditional group health plan.

The ICHRA notice is an important compliance requirement for employers offering an ICHRA.

The notice explains:

The amount employees can receive through the ICHRA
Which employees are eligible
How employees enroll
Individual health insurance coverage requirements
How the ICHRA affects premium tax credits
Special enrollment period (SEP) information
Opt-out rights

Generally, employers must provide the notice at least 90 days before the beginning of the plan year. For new employees who become eligible during the year, employers generally must provide the notice no later than the date the employee's coverage begins.

Because the notice contains required language established by federal regulations, employers should use an up-to-date template. They can also work with an HRA administrator, like PeopleKeep by Remodel Health, to ensure compliance. We automatically generate an ICHRA notice for your employees.

Written notice for QSEHRAs

Like an ICHRA, a qualified small employer HRA (QSEHRA) has specific employee notice requirements. Employers offering a QSEHRA must provide eligible employees with a written notice. The notice must explain how the benefit works and what employees need to know before using it.

It generally includes:

The employee's permitted annual benefit amount
Information about maintaining minimum essential coverage (MEC)
How the QSEHRA may affect the employee's eligibility for premium tax credits
Instructions for reporting the benefit to a Health Insurance Marketplace if the employee applies for advance premium tax credits

In most cases, employers must provide the notice at least 90 days before the beginning of the plan year. If an employee becomes eligible for the QSEHRA after the start of the plan year, the employer must generally provide the notice on or before the date the employee becomes eligible to participate.

When should employers distribute health benefit notices?

Not every notice follows the same schedule.

Here's a general overview:

Notice	Timing
Summary of benefits and coverage (SBC)	During open enrollment, when employees first become eligible, and upon request
Summary plan description (SPD)	Within 90 days of becoming covered by the plan
ICHRA notice	Generally, at least 90 days before the start of the plan year
QSEHRA notice	Generally, at least 90 days before the start of the plan year
HIPAA notice of privacy practices	When an individual enrolls in the plan, upon request, and when materially updated
HIPAA special enrollment notice	At or before enrollment
Marketplace exchange notice	Within 14 days of an employee's start date
Medicare Part D creditable coverage notice	Annually before October 15
Women's Health and Cancer Rights Act (WHCRA) notice	Upon enrollment and annually thereafter
Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) notice	Annually
COBRA notices	Following qualifying events and enrollment in COBRA continuation coverage

Employers should review their compliance calendar each year to ensure notices are distributed on time.

Best practices for staying compliant

Managing health benefit notices can feel overwhelming, especially for small businesses with limited HR resources.

A few best practices include:

Maintain an annual compliance calendar
Keep records of when notices were distributed
Update notice templates each year as regulations change
Review plan documents regularly to ensure they're current
Work with an HRA administrator

PeopleKeep helps employers simplify HRA compliance by generating essential plan documents, including initial plan documents, SPDs, and customized employee notices.

Conclusion

Providing required health benefit plan notices is an important part of managing employee benefits. While notice requirements and deadlines vary based on the type of benefit you offer, staying organized helps employees understand their coverage and helps your business avoid compliance issues. Reviewing your requirements each year and keeping accurate records can make it easier to maintain a compliant benefits program.

If you're offering or considering an ICHRA or QSEHRA, PeopleKeep by Remodel Health can help simplify the process. Schedule a call with one of our HRA specialists today!

This blog article was originally published on April 8, 2015. It was last updated on August 3, 2026.

References

Frequently asked questions

Some notices must be provided annually, while others are only required when employees become eligible, after qualifying events, or upon request. Employers should review their compliance obligations each year to ensure they meet all applicable deadlines.

Both ICHRAs and QSEHRAs require a written employee notice before the plan year begins. However, each notice includes different information based on the rules governing that type of HRA.

Missing required notices can lead to compliance issues, employee confusion, and potential penalties. For example, a group health plan or insurer that willfully fails to provide a required SPC may face a penalty of up to $1,000 for each failure⁶.