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Volume 12 Number 245 News: Mental Health Congress has approved legislation to extend current mental health parity law until the end of 2008. Under the legislation, group health plans that provide medical and surgical care as well as mental health care would be barred from imposing coverage limits on mental health care that are not in place for other medical coverage. The provision would impose a $100 fine per day for violations. It was included in a military tax bill (H.R. 3997) passed by the House Dec. 18 and the Senate Dec. 19. The provision is effective Jan. 1, 2008. The provision would cost $25 million over five years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Legislation approved in 1996 requires group health plans that offer mental health benefits to set the same annual and lifetime caps on mental health coverage as for other medical/surgical services. Loopholes Cited Mental health advocacy groups say the 1996 law has loopholes that need to be closed by barring group health plans from requiring higher copayments, deductibles, and coinsurance payments for mental health services, compared to other health benefits. These groups have criticized Congress for merely passing extensions of the current law, rather than addressing the cost-sharing issues. Congress attempted to pass comprehensive mental health parity legislation in 2007, but differences between the House and Senate bills (H.R. 1424, S. 558) could not be resolved. Among the areas of disagreement is a provision in the House bill requiring employers to cover all illnesses listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition (DSM-IV); medical management issues; and how to pay for the bills, which cost the federal government about $4.1 billion over 10 years. House and Senate lawmakers say they will try again to resolve the differences when they return for the second session of the 110th Congress in January.
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