(TheRedWire.com) – On Tuesday the Biden administration announced new rules that would help reinforce legislation that mandates that insurance companies need to cover both mental health benefits and medical and surgical benefits to an equal degree.
The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) was originally passed in 2008 but now the Biden administration is arguing that access to mental health services remains limited for many Americans.
Neera Tanden, the White House domestic policy adviser, revealed in a meeting that they are aware of the effectiveness of treatment and why having access to these services is essential for the well-being of families. Still, less than 50 percent of Americans in 2020 were able to get the assistance that they needed for their mental health as they lacked the necessary insurance coverage.
The new health plan would make alterations to those vases where access to mental health services was shown to be inadequate. The inadequacies would be found through an analysis of those companies that were unable to meet the necessary legal requirements set. Still, insurance companies in the past have not been as thorough in their investigations as they should have been.
In 2022 in a report sent to Congress, the Departments of Labor, Treasury, Health and Human Services found that 40 percent of insurance companies had requested for additional extensions to be provided before the comparative analyses could be completed. The report points out that this high percentage leads to the conclusion that a large number of issuers were not fulfilling their statutory obligation.
Copyright 2023, TheRedWire.com
