Becker's Healthcare January 22, 2025
Payers are making strides in addressing disparities around mental health and substance use disorder care services but are still falling short of achieving parity under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, according to a Jan. 17 report to Congress from HHS, and the Labor and Treasury Departments.
Five notes:
1. The Employee Benefits Security Administration oversees 2.6 million private health plans, 801,000 retirement, and 514,000 welfare benefit plans covering 156 million workers and retirees. The agency has one investigator per 13,900 plans.
2. Noncompliance is widespread among health plans, and investigations often require techniques such as depositions and claims reviews​. ​Enforcement tools such as settlements, audits, and public awareness campaigns used in 2023 impacted more than 7.6 million...