The Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 requires insurers to place the same limits and costs on mental health or addiction treatment as treatment of physical illness. Advocates of data collection legislation believe the study will show whether insurance companies are abiding by the parity law.
Health plans have largely opposed the legislation, saying lawmakers are jumping the gun on new legislation without waiting to assess the impact of current data collection efforts.
The insurance department led a working group last year that is still collecting data on authorization and denial of medical necessity by type and level of behavioral health treatment, as well as denials that are upheld or overturned.
“You can’t do anything about a problem unless you have good data about the issue,” said Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Bradford). “And we may surprise ourselves, it may turn out that we’re actually doing a really good job. We don’t know that, honestly, until we can collect the data from the payers themselves.”
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