The Kaiser Health News (8/4, Gold) reports that since passage of the “landmark” 2008 mental health parity law by Congress that banned “discrimination in the treatment” of people with mental illnesses, “many families and their advocates complain it stubbornly persists, largely because insurers are subverting the law in subtle ways and the government is not aggressively enforcing it.” For example, some health insurance companies “limit treatment through other strategies that are harder to track,” such as instituting “medical necessity” reviews, a process whereby “insurers decide whether a patient requires a certain treatment and at what frequency.” According to Kaiser Health News, since 2008, “the US government has not taken a single public enforcement action against an insurer or employer for violating the law.”
Related Links:
— “Advocates Say Mental Health ‘Parity’ Law Is Not Fulfilling Its Promise,” Jenny Gold, Kaiser Health News, August 3, 2015.