Bill aims for mental health parity in Medicare

Beneficiaries would see the co-payment for mental health care drop from 50% to 20%.

By David Glendinning, AMNews staff. April 23/30, 2007.

Washington -- Hoping to ride a growing wave of support on Capitol Hill for mental health parity, one powerful lawmaker has reintroduced a bill that would extend the concept to Medicare.

House Ways and Means health subcommittee Chair Pete Stark (D, Calif.) in March introduced the Medicare Mental Health Modernization Act of 2007. The bill would require the federal government to cover mental health treatment at the same level as it covers other medical services.

Medicare beneficiaries are charged 50% of the bill for outpatient mental health treatment. For most medical services, the beneficiary co-payment is only 20%. Medicare also imposes a 190-day lifetime limit on inpatient mental health services, something it does not do for hospital stays, surgery or other medical services for physical illnesses.

Stark's bill would reduce Medicare's outpatient co-payment to 20% and eliminate the inpatient lifetime limit. He has been trying to require mental health parity for the program for more than a decade without success. But his effort could now benefit from the Democrats' takeover in Congress and growing momentum to pass widely supported parity legislation that would apply to private insurers that offer such benefits.