The Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services, along with the Internal Revenue Service (Agencies) recently announced they will not enforce regulations promulgated in 2024 regarding the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) (2024 Final Rule), implementing changes Congress made to the MHPAEA by way of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (CAA). The Agencies noted they will reconsider or modify the 2024 Final Rule (and potentially other guidance) and review each department’s respective enforcement approach. Before the recent change in enforcement position, the DOL, in particular, had emphasized that MHPAEA compliance was one of its top enforcement priorities.
Tag: MHPAEA
Mental Health Parity: Comparative Assessments Required for Certain Nonquantitative Treatment Limits in Group Health Plans
As noted in several recent blog posts, the year-end Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) included a number of employee benefits-related changes. One set of changes represents an effort to further strengthen protections under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA). These new provisions will require group health plans and health insurance issuers (collectively, “group health plans”) that provide both medical and surgical (M/S) benefits and mental health or substance use disorder (MH/SUD) benefits and that impose nonquantitative treatment limitations (NQTL) on MH/SUD benefits to perform comparative analyses to demonstrate compliance with mental health parity requirements. Plans will also be required to provide that comparative information to the DOL, HHS or applicable State authority upon request (DOL for ERISA-governed group health plans). These new requirements go into effect February 10, 2021 (45 days after enactment of the CAA).