Mental Health Parity

[somarco]

Looks like Obamacare is going to become law piece by piece. Just found this on MHP which seems to be retroactive to 1/1/10.

Of course plans covering federal employees are exempt from compliance. And it appears employers with fewer than 50 employees and individual plans are exempt. If a plan does not offer mental health coverage they do not have to comply. Medicare does not have to comply but if you have a managed care MA plan it does have to comply.

And this from CMS:

There are three exceptions to the MHPAEA requirements:

• MHPAEA requirements do not apply to small employers who have between 2 and 50 employees;

• Large group health plan sponsors that meet the requirements stated in the MHPAEA download below (Section 512(a)(2) Cost Exemption) and demonstrate that compliance with MHPAEA increases their claims by at least two percent in the first year (one percent in subsequent years) may request exemption from the MHPAEA based on their cost exemption. Subsequently, the plan sponsors may notify the plan beneficiaries that MHPAEA does not apply to their coverage; and

• A nonfederal governmental employer that provides self-funded group health plan coverage to its employees (coverage that is not provided through an insurer) may elect to exempt its plan (opt-out) from the requirements of MHPAEA by following the Procedures & Requirements posted on the Self-Funded Nonfederal Governmental Plans webpage (see Related Links Inside CMS), then issuing a notice of opt-out to enrollees at the time of enrollment and on an annual basis. Thereafter, the employer must also file the opt-out notification with CMS.

If I read that right, if your claim costs are expected to increase by more than 2% in the first year you can request an exemption. I haven't looked it up in a while but seems like the figure for MHP is more on the order of 5 - 8%. I believe there are a few states where it is already law.