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Our nation’s mental health crisis, declared by President Joe Biden, significantly impacts employees’ wellness and productivity in the workplace. The impact on productivity from mental health episodes is alarming: COVID-19 has had a significant impact on employee mental health. The pandemic brought about a range of stressors and challenges that have affected people’s mental well-being […]
The exact scope of the health coverage mandate for COVID-testing was clarified in a new round of regulatory guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The frequently asked questions (FAQs) also address notice requirements, telehealth coverage, and the interaction of COVID-19 emergency relief with existing benefits laws.
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) proposed a new round of guidance on the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA), elaborating on the law’s application to various plan design features that may be deemed to treat mental health benefits unfairly.
By David Slaughter, JD, Senior Legal Editor Enforcement of mental health parity requirements is on the upswing, so plan sponsors and administrators need to be reexamining their plan documents and claims review processes for signs that mental health and substance use disorder (MH/SUD) benefits are being handled differently from other coverage.
By Benjamin J. Conley, JD In late October, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a series of informal frequently asked questions (FAQs) addressing various unanswered questions under the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) preventive service mandate, the Mental Health Parity, and […]
Plans may not impose cost-sharing on out-of-network services unless in-network providers are available and the plan member goes out of network in spite of that, federal agencies noted in FAQs on the ACA Part XXIX. But if network provider directories fail to list providers as offering the service in question, then plan members do not […]
Pre-authorization procedures, plan disclosures and geographical restrictions are just a few features group health plans will need to re-examine by the time the recently finalized mental health parity rules take effect. For calendar-year plans, this means Jan. 1, 2015 — less than a year away. The interaction of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity […]
A third-party claims administrator may not be sued for violating the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act because the law by its terms applies only to group health plans and their insurers, a federal district court ruled. Related ERISA claims against the TPA were also dismissed because the company was not the “plan administrator” […]
Final mental health parity rules issued Nov. 8 make several changes to the prior, interim version. The exemption for “clinically appropriate standards of care” was eliminated because regulators decided it was confusing and subject to abuse, and the rules’ application to “intermediate” coverage levels was clarified in response to uncertainty about how the interim rules’ […]
The U.S. Department of Labor has collected its rules, guidance and other materials on the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act into a new MHPAEA Web page. The materials on this page include a new set of frequently asked questions on “understanding implementation” of MHPAEA, which when enacted in 2008 substantially beefed up HIPAA’s […]