ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Mental Health America (MHA) commends the Administration for finalizing the proposed rules to strengthen the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (Federal Parity Act). These final rules will improve access to mental health care and increase accountability among health plans and insurers.
The new parity rules will expand access to care by establishing clear benchmarks that plans and insurers must meet in terms of designing and maintaining their provider networks and establishing reimbursement rates. Under the previous regulatory structure, it was very difficult to determine if plans and insurers were complying with existing law in these respects. The new benchmarks will make compliance more straightforward and transparent.
The rules enhance accountability by prohibiting plans and insurers from deploying managed care practices, such as prior authorization, unless they can prove that the practice in question complies with the law and is no more burdensome than physical healthcare practices. So, if a plan can’t demonstrate that prior authorization for mental health care follows the law, then it can’t impose a prior authorization requirement again until it proves that it is in compliance. This will strongly incentivize plans to pass the tests of the law and show their work.
“Mental health parity has always been about improving access to critically needed care, which was the goal of the Federal Parity Act when it was enacted in 2008,” said Schroeder Stribling, president and CEO of MHA. “Unfortunately, the promise of parity has remained elusive during the past 16 years, but these new rules will focus plans and employers on its core purpose and benefit millions of Americans.”