Coalition Sues to Stop Implementation of Mental Health Parity Rule
Business Insurance reports that the suit filed last week in U.S. District Court in Washington by the Coalition for Parity Inc. alleges that regulators failed to provide a “true and complete comment period,” which has resulted in “confusing, flawed and untested requirements.” In addition, while the interim final rule would ban the use of separate deductibles for mental health and medical treatment, the coalition says a single deductible for mental health and other medical services is a “requirement found nowhere” in the 2008 law.
“This requirement marks a dramatic departure from existing practice in the industry,” the suit filed by law firm Crowell & Moring L.LP. says, according to Business Insurance.
In addition, the suit notes that, “While seemingly straightforward in concept, the task of requiring multiple different claims systems to ‘talk to each’ other on anything resembling a real-time basis is a task of monumental proportion that the departments did not appreciate precisely because they ignored the mandatory notice and comment period prior to issuance of a final rule,” the news report said.
The interim final rule, which is slated to go into effect for plan years beginning July 1, was issued earlier this year by several federal agencies to implement a 2008 law that requires group plans with more than 50 employees to provide the same coverage of mental health and substance abuse treatments as they do for medical and surgical care (see Treasury, HHS Issue New Rules on Mental Health Parity).« Arizona, Nevada Governors Bypass AGs to Join Healthcare Suit