AHA urges CMS to exert greater oversight of mental health parity in Medicaid, CHIP

AHA today urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to “exert greater oversight” to ensure that both state governments and Medicaid managed care organizations operating in the states comply with mental health parity standards. In comments to the agency, AHA Executive Vice President Rick Pollack called an April proposed rule to bring Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program plans into compliance with the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act “an important step” but urged CMS to ensure it is applied equally across the states. “Ensuring parity standards apply across all types of Medicaid and CHIP health plan benefit designs will help safeguard access to and the affordability of [mental health/substance use disorders] care for our nation’s most vulnerable,” he said. The law requires commercial health plans that offer mental health or substance use disorder benefits to provide them at parity with their medical/surgical benefits, thereby removing barriers to care and limitations on coverage affecting many patients.