MENTAL HEALTH PARITY

I am a parrot, not to be confused with par-it-y!

What does mental health parity mean?
Refers to having equality in insurance coverage between mental health and medical benefits

Many insurers have instituted limitations on mental health services - may involve setting lifetime and annual benefit expenditures, while similar limitations do not exists for medial care

Why is this concerning?
This is concerning because research has revealed that mental illness is more prevalent that cancer, diabetes, or heart disease

In any given year more than 5 million Americans suffer from an acute episode of mental illness

Aren't mental illnesses extreamly hard to treat?
No, in fact many mental illnesses are even more treatable than the physical benefits that insurance companies are more than willing to pay for

The treatment success rate for schizoprenia is 60%, 65% for major depression, and 80% for bipolar disorder - comparatively, the success rate for treatment of heart disease ranges from 41-52%

What does the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 do?
It prohibits group health plans with mental coverage from setting lower annual and lifetime spending limits than those that exist for medial care

Who are the main beneficiaries of the Mental Health Parity Act?
The main beneficiaries are persons with the most severe, persistent, and disabling of brain disorders because they are, on average, more likely to exceed annual and lifetime benefits

What does the law not do?
First, does not require that group health plans even provide mental coverage

Second, treatments for substance/chemical abuse are excluded from parity

Third, the law does not establish equality in regards to visit limits, beneficiary cost-sharing, and managed care

Fourth, the law does not pertain to individual health insurance plans - applies to group health plans that are utilized by businesses with 51 or more employees

Fifth, health care plans can seek parity exemption of their compliane with the law results in a cost increase of 1% or greater

Who is against mental health parity?
The insurance companies and the business community lobby intensely against mental health parity legislation, despite research that shows it will not cost a tremendous amount of money and will lead to a more productive workforce

What is the cost data on parity?
The law resulted in approximately a $1.00 increase per insured person under a manged care environment

More comprehensive parity - removing limits on inpatient and outpatient visits - would show an increase of $7.00, which denotes only 0.5% of annual menal health coverage costs

What has been the response by states?
Existing state partiy laws are not preempted by the federal law - a state law requiring more comprehensive coverage would not be weakened by the federal law, not does it preclude a state from enacting stronger parity legislation

As it currently stands, 28 states have some form of their own parity legislation

Presently New York State does NOT have a mental health partiy law and NASW is one of the organizations actively advocating for it - pending House and Senate bills have the main goal of eradicating federal parity loopholes and banning manged care providers from instituting mental health visit limits of equal medical visits do not exist

Calling for mental health parity!!!