Nov 10, 2015
The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act
MHPAEA, passed in 2008, is designed to end discriminatory health care practices toward mental illness and addiction (MH/SUD). The law prohibits plans from applying financial requirements or treatment limitations to mental MH/SUD benefits that are more restrictive than those applied to medical/surgical benefits.
Plans also cannot apply separate treatment limitations only to MH/SUD benefits. The law prevents financial (quantitative) and non-financial (non-quantitative) ways that plans limit access to MH/SUD treatment more so than plans do for other conditions. Final implementing regulations went into full effect January 1, 2015 for all plans covered by MHPAEA.
National Parity Implementation Coalition
NAATP knows that the MHPAEA is frequently not honored and enforced as it concerns coverage for addiction treatment. The NAATP Policy Advocacy Team is at work on behalf of our members to implement and enforce parity through both legislative and judicial action. NAATP is a member of the National Parity Implementation Coalition that this week distributed the following brief expertly describing the status of parity as it effects our work.
Read the Parity Enforcement Brief >>
NAATP encourages its members to to stand up for parity implementation on the state and local level as well. It is imperative that you thoroughly document parity violations and report them. We know this is not always easy. The National Parity Implementation Coalition resource page offers assistance: ParityisPersonal.org/Answers/Resources
In the coming months, NAATP will be gathering parity case violations from our members. If you would like to be involved in that process, please contact me.
