Insurance companies must make mental, physical health benefits equal under Fitzpatrick bill

Mental health parity — which under federal law means that insurance plans must provide the same level of coverage for mental health and substance-use disorders that they provide for physical health conditions — would be better enforced under a bipartisan bill recently introduced by U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA). 

“The mental health and opioid epidemic sweeping across our nation has only been compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Rep. Fitzpatrick, co-chair of the Bipartisan Opioid Task Force. “Now, more than ever, we must ensure that all Americans have the access they need to seek out effective mental health and addiction treatment.” 

The Parity Enforcement Act of 2021, H.R. 1364, which Rep. Fitzpatrick cosponsored on Feb. 25 with bill sponsor U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross (D-NJ), would expand the authority of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to hold health insurers and plan sponsors accountable for offering health plans that violate the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008.

Currently, DOL may only require employers to reimburse their workers after there are parity violations in their self-funded insurance plans and cannot take action against the insurance company that is offering the insurance plan, leaving the department with no enforcement mechanism to ensure compliance with existing mental health and substance-use parity requirements, according to a bill summary provided by Rep. Fitzpatrick’s office.

“It is unacceptable when some bad actor insurance companies are able to get away with not following parity laws, whether it be through denying treatment or making access to treatment difficult,” Rep. Fitzpatrick said. “Our bipartisan Parity Enforcement Act will empower the U.S. Department of Labor to discourage these unlawful actions and ensure that employer-sponsored insurance plans are compliant with parity rules.”

H.R. 1364 is supported by numerous groups, including the National Association for Rural Mental Health, the Kennedy Forum, the American Psychological Association, the American Society of Addiction Medicine, the National Council for Behavioral Health, the National Association of Social Workers, and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.