“The federal government is enforcing parity and investigating violations, according to a report by The U.S. Department of Labor. “Improving Coverage for Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Patients” presents information on mental health and substance abuse parity violations investigated among insurance carriers from October 2010 through the end of 2015.
“It’s one thing to hear the complaints, frustrations and difficulties of getting paid by carriers anecdotally and another to see where the Department of Labor is specifically finding problems,” says Marvin Ventrell, executive director of the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers (NAATP).
While there have been successes with the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act and progress has been made in terms of enforcing and implementing the law, the report found both quantitative (payment-oriented) and non-quantitative (access-oriented) violations. Among the 1,515 investigations carried out, 171 violations were found—58 percent of which were non-quantitative.”
Read more at: http://www.behavioral.net/article/federal-investigation-reveals-parity-violations
Source: Behavioral.net – February 17, 2016
