For those of you who have been following The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA) you’ll be delighted to know the regulations have been released. You can view the full regulations here:
http://www.dol.gov/federalregister/PdfDisplay.aspx?DocId=23511
For those of you that don’t know MHPAEA is a federal law that provides participants who already have benefits under mental health and substance use disorder (MH/SU) coverage parity with benefits limitations under their medical/surgical coverage.
If you have questions or need help please contact us.
Posed by Ian Holtz, Sales Executive
The Act looks good at first, but the caveats are depressing (see http://thehawk333.wordpress.com ). Because the treatment of mental health and substance abuse issues is such an inexact science (art?), there are not agreed upon ‘standards of care’ to which insurance providers must adhere. The Act puts a lot of power in the hands of utilization review personnel who must determine the medical necessity of treatment. This will put a big crimp in the success of the Act.