Thread by @MarilynHeineMD

🧵⁦@AmerMedicalAssn⁩ greatly appreciates the recent action taken by ⁦@USDOL⁩ to help protect patients with a #mentalillness.

dol.gov/newsroom/relea…

#MentalHealth #MentalHealthMatters #MentalHealthParity

2/ “The DOL action fining United Behavioral Healthcare & United Healthcare $13.6 million is indicative of the widespread violations by health insurers of state & federal #mentalhealth & #substanceusedisorder parity laws, including the Mental Health Parity & Addiction Equity Act”

3/ @AmerMedicalAssn wrote:

“We urge the @USDOL, as well as the states, to increase efforts to review plans on a regular basis to ensure they are in compliance with MHPAEA and hold them accountable if they are not.”

4/ “The @AmerMedicalAssn is not surprised that your investigation found violations ‘going back to at least 2013.’ United’s failure to comply with the law for patients with #mentalillness and #substanceusedisorders is hardly limited to this action.”

5/ “As the AMA highlighted in our July 24, 2020 letter to the DOL, there is increasing evidence of widespread, frequent violations by many different insurers—but these violations only come to light because of meaningful oversight and enforcement actions.”

6/ “It is deeply concerning that each time regulators investigate, they find violations.

In DE a few weeks ago, for example, regulators announced more than $1.3 million in fines for repeated discriminatory violations of #mentalhealth & #substanceusedisorder parity requirements.”

7/ “At this point in MHPAEA’s existence, there is no reason for health insurers to continue to violate the law—violations that harm patients with #mentalillness and invariably cause considerable harm and suffering, including long-term disability and death.”

#MentalHealthMatters

8/ “The @USDOL’s partnership, moreover, with the New York State Attorney General highlights the importance of state-federal cooperation in conducting meaningful [#mentalhealth and #substanceusedisorder] parity oversight and enforcement.”

9/ “This is one reason why the @AmerMedicalAssn continues to strongly advocate to state regulators at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to make enforcement [of mental health and substance use disorder parity] a high priority.” @naic

10/ “This includes using proven tools to prospectively measure plans’ compliance, as well as undertake new efforts to improve the equitable provision of care for those with a #mentalillness or #substanceusedisorder.”

11/ “The @AmerMedicalAssn @APAPsychiatric and @ASAMorg have advocated, for example, for ‘enhanced attestation’ to require health plans to demonstrate they have completed the comparative analysis required by MHPAEA before violations harm patients.”

12/ “As part of the AMA’s recommendations to @ONDCP
regarding its 2022 National Drug Control Strategy, AMA urged the Biden Administration to provide the DOL with the necessary resources and make clear that strong parity oversight and enforcement must be of the highest priority.”

13/ “AMA believes that such enforcement is particularly important given that DOL now can require health insurance carriers to submit a comparative analysis that their #mentalhealth & #substanceusedisorder benefits are in parity compared w/ the plan’s medical/surgical benefits.”

14/ @AmerMedicalAssn emphasizes:

“Health plans’ history of more than a decade of noncompliance [with the Mental Health Parity & Addiction Equity Act of 2008] must not be tolerated, & the @USDOL’s leadership in this area is greatly appreciated.”

Read: tinyurl.com/2z3wv863