Mental Health Means American Health

The U.S. Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Treasury (the agencies) issued a 2022 report to Congress regarding their enforcement activities under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) , as required under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (CAA 2021) (Pub. L. No. 116-260, Div. BB, § 203). See DOL News Release. The CAA 2021 mandates that group health plans offering medical/surgical and mental health/substance-use disorder coverage that impose non-quantitative treatment limitations (NQTLs) on such benefits provide comparative analyses and documentation demonstrating compliance with the MHPAEA. The law also requires the agencies to implement a compliance program for plans and insurers to help them interpret and appropriately implement the NQTL rules, and to conduct investigations of at least 20 of the NQTL analysis disclosures per year, monitoring remedial actions, and creating periodic reports. 

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• Mental Health Parity and Equity Addiction Act Compliance for Employer Health Plans
  Learn more about how the MHPAEA (Pub. L. No. 110-343) and related provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Pub. L. No. 111-148) generally prevent health plans and policies from imposing less favorable terms on mental health or substance use disorder benefits than on medical and surgical benefits. Section 203 of Div. BB of the CAA 2021 imposed new requirements on certain group health plans to perform compliance analyses to ensure they are not in violation of certain MHPAEA requirements regarding NQTLs.

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