CHICAGO — The American Medical Association welcomed today the final recommendations from the White House's Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Parity Task Force that outline policies to boost compliance with mental health parity laws. With the recommendations in place, the onus is on state officials and payers to implement the recommendations.
The AMA has long supported parity for mental health coverage and advocated for provisions in the Affordable Care Act and the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act to ensure that health insurance plans treat mental health and substance use disorders the same way they treat other health conditions. President Obama established the task force in March and asked federal agencies to work together to ensure that consumers are benefiting from the mental health and substance use disorder parity protections under the law.
“Consumers have repeatedly faced discrimination in the way insurers reimburse for mental health services. The AMA has pushed — and Congress has agreed — to move toward parity,” said AMA President Andrew W. Gurman, MD. “The need for parity has taken on even greater urgency because of the opioid epidemic that has resulted in a huge demand for substance use disorder treatment — care that often comes with nonmedical usage limits, high co-pays or other restrictions that are not placed on medical benefits. These new policies — if followed by payers and enforced by state officials — will provide much-needed relief to patients who have suffered for far too long.”
Importantly, the task force calls for federal support for state efforts to enforce parity through trainings, resources, and new implementation tools, including model compliance templates. State regulators need to ensure consumers are receiving the coverage they were promised when purchasing a plan. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is awarding $9.3 million to states to help enforce parity protections. CMS funding will help provide state insurance regulators the resources to oversee issuer compliance with the mental health and substance use disorder parity protections.
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About the American Medical Association
The American Medical Association is the physicians’ powerful ally in patient care. As the only medical association that convenes 190+ state and specialty medical societies and other critical stakeholders, the AMA represents physicians with a unified voice to all key players in health care. The AMA leverages its strength by removing the obstacles that interfere with patient care, leading the charge to prevent chronic disease and confront public health crises and, driving the future of medicine to tackle the biggest challenges in health care.
