Long-Term Care For Consumers With Behavioral Disorders – A New Parity Add

On March 29, 2016, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its final rule on mental health and addiction treatment parity for state Medicaid programs and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) plans (see CMS Final Medicaid Parity Rule Released: All Plan Types Included). The basic gist of the rule – parity requirements apply to all types of Medicaid plans and CMS will not approve any state Medicaid program requests for waivers from the parity requirements.

But what I also found interesting was what CMS added to the rule, based on public feedback. In a change from the . . .