Jun 6, 2019
Today NAATP joined the addiction field in calling on the Chair and Ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee to support language requiring enforcement of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (Parity).
Currently, the “Lower Health Care Costs Act of 2019” is before the Senate Committee. There is strong bi-partisan support for that legislation. We have asked the Committee to include the “Mental Health Parity Compliance Act of 2019” as part of the other bill.
Both legislative proposals are supported on a bi-partisan basis and the “Lower Health Care Cost” bill appears to have an excellent chance of passage. Senators Cassidy and Murphy are co-sponsors of the “Mental Health Parity Compliance Act.”
The “Mental Health Parity Compliance Act of 2019” would require group health plans and insurers to provide the Secretaries of Labor, Treasury, and Health and Human Services with analysis comparing non-quantitative limitations to medical and surgical benefits with those to mental health and substance use disorder benefits when requested.
It would also require the Secretaries of those agencies to make the request for that information when they receive consumer complaints and to randomly review these reports from 50 policies annually. The same information would be made available to States and Congress.
While the Cassidy-Murphy bill would not specifically enforce Parity, if enacted it would provide documentation demonstrating that MHPAEA (Parity) is NOT being enforced effectively.
We encourage NAATP members to call the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair, Lamar Alexander and other members of the committee and ask that they include the “Mental Health Parity Compliance Act” as they consider the “Lower Health Care Costs Act of 2019”.
