Leading Healthcare Stakeholders Respond to Administration Change to Mental Health Parity Act: “These Changes Will Not Address the Inadequate Supply of Mental Health Providers”
AHIP, the Association for Behavioral Health and Wellness (ABHW), the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), and The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) urge the Administration to look beyond the Mental Health Parity Act to fully support patients
Washington, D.C., September 9, 2024 – AHIP, the Association of Behavioral Health and Wellness (ABHW), the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), and The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) react to the Tri-Departments’ final mental health and substance use disorder parity rule released today.
“The final Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) rule will have severe unintended consequences that will raise costs and jeopardize patients’ access to safe, effective, and medically necessary mental health support. With nearly 50 million Americans experiencing a mental illness, there’s no question that addressing the shortage of mental health providers must be a top priority. There are proven solutions to increase access to mental health and substance use disorder care, including more effectively connecting patients to available providers, expanding telehealth resources and improving training for primary care providers. However, this rule promotes none of these solutions. Instead of expanding the workforce or meaningfully improving access to mental health support, the final rule will complicate compliance so much that it will be impossible to operationalize, resulting in worse patient outcomes.”
The organizations support the intent of mental health parity and are committed to strengthening compliance. We recognize that the Tri-Departments made changes to the proposed rule in response to public comments. However, this rule goes beyond the intent of the 2008 Mental Health Parity law, and we are concerned that it will negatively impact health outcomes, quality, and, ultimately, the cost of care.
Let’s Focus on Solutions to Improve Patient Access
Rather than increase access to mental health and substance use disorder care, the new rule could reduce access to quality of care and increase costs so significantly that employers may be forced to drop mental health care coverage entirely—coverage that is currently provided voluntarily. The Tri-Departments should focus on fixing the mental health workforce shortages and more effectively connecting patients to available mental health care providers, which will take a long-term commitment from all stakeholders. We also need better training for primary care physicians to care for mental and behavioral health conditions. This will reduce the burden on mental health clinical specialists who are nearly maxed out on the number of patients they see.
Former U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) laid out additional concerns regarding the rule change in a recent op-ed:
“Mental health is an issue our entire nation is currently confronting, and we must take a multifaceted approach to address the growing problem. I appreciate the Biden administration’s commitment to improving access to care. Still, we must also ensure we’re going through the appropriate channels, working with field experts to ensure the right steps are being taken. We cannot afford to govern through rule changes.”
Constance Garner, former policy director at the Senate HELP Committee who helped draft the original MHPAEA, shared similar concerns:
“This final rule lowers the quality of standards for mental health professionals to join an insurance network while also pushing more patients or their caretakers to choose a higher-level mental health professional for even milder symptoms that a primary care physician could treat. Simple supply and demand principles would dictate that this will lead to higher costs and exacerbate an already dangerous shortage of mental health professionals.”