May 28, 2009

Letter From American Psychiatric Association Responding to Federal Request for Information Regarding the Paul Wellstone & Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity & Addiction Equity Act of 2008

American Psychiatric Association (APA) medical director James H. Scully, Jr., M.D., responded to a federal request for information regarding the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAE2008). Dr. Scully urged the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Treasury to require real-time monitoring of insurance coverage and management practices to ensure that the new law is implemented in a way that expands the availability of treatment for people with behavioral health issues. He called for a system where insurance plans have a combined deductible for all covered health care costs, rather than two separate, but equal, deductibles for medical/surgical and behavioral health disorder benefits. APA asked regulators to monitor management techniques, such as differential reimbursement for physicians, prior authorization, and utilization review, which could become barriers to equality of coverage. APA also identified specific areas of the MHPAE2008 which need clarification to ensure that access to service is available as intended by the parity law.