May CEU: Mental Health Parity Laws: What you need to know.

In 2024, over half of the federal Department of Health Plan Investigations’ cases involved mental health parity complaints. The federal mental health parity laws protect patients by ensuring employer health plans provide equal access and coverage for treatment services for both mental health and addiction services and medical services. In other words, patients seeking behavioral health care have to be treated the same as, or in parity with, patients seeking surgical or medical care. 

Health plans often fail to demonstrate that their limits on autism services are comparable to those applied to medical/surgical benefits, a key requirement highlighted by the 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) amendments to the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA). In the 2024 Report to Congress, the number one coverage exclusion was ABA treatment services, a primary treatment for autism.

Come join us for discussions on the number one MHPAEA parity law violation and the use of Non-Quantitative Treatment Limitations (NQTLs) within autism treatments. We will discuss specific NQTLs that impose stricter prior authorization requirements, medical necessity reviews, or age/dollar caps on Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) services compared to medical/surgical care. These additional burdens often restrict access to essential autism treatment if providers do not know how to respond.

CEU Pricing:

Non-member: $20

Affiliate member: $10

Full member: FREE

Student: FREE