Soon has finally arrived. After almost 3 years of waiting, consumers, providers and advocates were rewarded this morning with Final Regulations to implement and enforce the Federal Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act. Secretary Sebelius announced the release of the Final Regulations at the Rosalyn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy earlier this morning. The regulations can be found in the Federal Register. SAMHSA is hosting a web briefing on the final rule at 12:30 today, which can be accessed here. The Final rule is expected to include among other consumer protections:
-clarifications of transparency requirements
-clarification that parity applies to all plan provisions and levels of treatment, including intermediate
David Wellstone, son of the late U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone, sponsor of the law, commented on the regulations in the MinnPost yesterday, “It looks like we got everything we were battling to keep in the final rule, including scope of service, intermediate levels of care, and transparency.”
Concerns about the final rule are already cropping up. Andrew Sperling of NAMI points out in CQ Healthbeat a major concern is that the final rule does not apply to Medicaid managed care plans, as noted by the New York Times. Also as pointed out by Representative Kennedy in the Times article, the focus of advocates will now shift from advocating for a final rule to advocating for real enforcement of the law. The delegation of enforcement to the State Insurance Commissioners is problematic as many of the commissioners are closely tied to the insurance industry.
As Representative Kennedy stated in the MinnPost, “..this is not the last step, it is the first step” to full enforcement of the law.
Check back next week for a post summarizing the final rule. Contact Us if you have any questions or believe an insurer may be in violation of the federal parity law.