Recent Health Policy Briefs: Mental Health Parity and ICD-10 Update - Health Affairs Blog
The latest Health Policy Brief from Health Affairs and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation examines the issue of mental health parity. The push to make coverage for mental health treatment equal to that of physical health has been on legislative to-do lists for some time, both in Congress and in state houses. This brief looks at the evolution of the Mental Health Parity Act, originally passed by Congress in 1996 as well as changes in mental health parity brought about by the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Also posted today: an update to the last month’s brief on the transition to ICD-10. Congress recently passed legislation delaying the system’s implementation. Click here to learn what the delay means for providers and payers.
Health Policy Briefs are aimed at policy makers, congressional staffers, and others needing short, jargon-free explanations of health policy basics. Sign up for an e-mail alert about upcoming briefs. The briefs are also available from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s website. Please feel free to forward the briefs to any of your colleagues who are tracking health issues. And after you’ve taken a look, we welcome your feedback at: hpbrief@healthaffairs.org.
Mental Health Parity. Topics covered in this brief include:
What’s the background? The original 1996 law had gaps: It failed to address treatment limits, limitations on the types of facilities covered, differences in cost-sharing, and the application of managed care techniques that continued to make coverage for mental health benefits less generous than physical health coverage. The brief explains how federal legislation sought to address some of these inequities, culminating in the 2008 passage of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA). The brief also explains how the ACA made this coverage possible for more Americans: MHPAEA was limited to beneficiaries in large group health plans, while the ACA extended parity in coverage to Americans in the individual exchanges and the small business exchanges. Also, the ACA defined mental health coverage as an essential benefit of health insurance, thereby going beyond the scope of the MHPAEA by not only requiring parity but mandating coverage.
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