Florida Partners in Crisis

Federal officials issue insurance parity rules for mental illnesses and substance use disorders

January 29, 2010

The U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and the Treasury have jointly issued new rules providing parity for consumers enrolled in group health plans who need treatment for mental health or substance use disorders.

Sebelius

“The rules we are issuing today will, for the first time, help assure that those diagnosed with these debilitating and sometimes life-threatening disorders will not suffer needless or arbitrary limits on their care,” said Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “I applaud the long-standing and bipartisan effort that made these important new protections possible.”

“The benefits will give these Americans access to greatly needed medical treatment, which will better allow them to participate fully in society. That’s not just sound policy, it’s the right thing to do,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis.

Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin added that the rules "expand on existing protections to ensure that people don't face unnecessary barriers to the treatment they need.”

The new rules prohibit group health insurance plans—typically offered by employers—from restricting access to care by limiting benefits and requiring higher patient costs than those that apply to general medical or surgical benefits. The rules implement the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA) and are effective for plan years beginning on or after July 1, 2010.

MHPAEA greatly expands on an earlier law, the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996, which required parity only in aggregate lifetime and annual dollar limits between categories of benefits and did not extend to substance use disorder benefits. The 2008 legislation applies to employers with 50 or more workers whose group health plan chooses to offer mental health or substance use disorder benefits.

The new law requires that any group health plan that includes mental health and substance use disorder benefits along with standard medical and surgical coverage must treat them equally in terms of out-of-pocket costs, benefit limits and practices such as prior authorization and utilization review.

Such practices must be based on the same level of scientific evidence used by the insurer for medical and surgical benefits.  For example, a plan may not apply separate deductibles for treatment related to mental health or substance use disorders and medical or surgical benefits—they must be calculated as one limit.

Domenici

The Wellstone-Domenici Act is named for two dominant figures in the quest for equal treatment of benefits. The late Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-MN), who was a vocal advocate for parity throughout his Senate career, sponsored the ultimately successful full parity act.  He was joined by former Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) who first introduced legislation to require parity in 1992.  Champions of the legislation also included the bipartisan team of Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and former Rep.Jim Ramstad (R-MN).

The interim final rules released today were developed based on the departments' review of more than 400 public comments on how the parity rule should be written.  Comments on the interim final rules are still being solicited. 

Sections where further comments are being specifically sought include so-called “non quantitative” treatment limits such as those that pertain to the scope and duration of covered benefits, how covered drugs are determined (formularies), and the coverage of step-therapies.  Comments are also being specifically requested on the regulation’s section on “scope of benefits” or continuum of care.

Comments on the interim final regulation are due 90 days after the publication date of January 29 and may be emailed to the federal rulemaking portal at: http://www.regulations.gov.