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FEDERAL
LEGISLATION AND ADVOCACY
Richard Yanes, Esq
Without opposition or fanfare, the mental health parity statute first passed
in 1996 and due to expire on December 31, 2005, was extended by the Congress for
an additional year. Riddled with gaps and exceptions, the existing law requires
group health plans that offer mental health benefits to set the same annual and
lifetime caps on mental health coverage that exists in the plan's medical and
surgical sections.
Cost is frequently cited as an insurmountable barrier to mental health parity.
However, a recent independent study of parity as instituted in the Federal
Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) Program in 2001 concludes there has been
negligible impact on plan costs, with little or no impact on plan quality of
care. Access to and utilization of mental health and substance abuse services
showed no increase for adults and children, while substance abuse services alone
showed a slight but consistent increase across all plans.
In fact, it appears as if premium increase for mental health services in FEHB
policies amounted to less than 1% and may be as low as 6/10ths of a percent.
This confirms a previous analysis conducted by the Office of Personnel
Management, which attributed most of the increase in cost to improved benefit
levels.
The FEHB study can be found at
http://aspe.hhs.gov/daltcp/reports/parity.htm.
Richard Yanes, Esq., is executive director of the Clinical Social Work
Federation.
3/06