Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act Report Sent to Congress
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Treasury issued their 2022 report to Congress on the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) of 2008.
The report includes information that suggests health plans and health-insurance issuers are failing to deliver parity for mental-health and substance-use disorder benefits to those they cover. The report also highlights the departments’ recent emphasis on greater MHPAEA enforcement in addition to guidance to correct those failures, and makes recommendations to strengthen MHPAEA’s consumer protections and enhance the departments’ enforcement abilities.
In general, MHPAEA requires that the financial requirements and treatment limitations — such as co-payments and prior-authorization requirements imposed by a group health plan or health-insurance issuer on mental-health or substance-use-disorder benefits — cannot be more restrictive than the predominant financial requirements and treatment limitations that apply to substantially all medical and surgical benefits. The report cites specific examples of health plans and health-insurance issuers failing to ensure parity. For example, a health-insurance issuer covered nutritional counseling for medical conditions like diabetes, but not for mental-health conditions such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder.
“The report’s findings clearly indicate that health plans and insurance companies are falling short of providing parity in mental-health and substance-use-disorder benefits at a time when those benefits are needed like never before,” U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh said. “The pandemic is having a negative impact on the mental health of people in the U.S. and driving a rise in substance use. As a person in recovery, I know first-hand how important access to mental-health and substance-use-disorder treatment is. Enforcement of this law is a top priority for the Department of Labor and an objective I take personally.”
Added U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, “access to mental- and behavioral-health support is critical as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact so many lives across the country. Unfortunately, as today’s report shows, health plans and insurance companies are falling short of providing access to the treatment many working families need. We are committed to working with our federal partners to change this and hold health plans and insurance companies accountable for delivering more comprehensive care.”