A group of Senate Finance Committee lawmakers recently released the fifth and final legislative discussion draft that seeks to improve mental health parity in Medicare and Medicaid.
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-ID) recently joined U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Richard Burr (R-NC) in outlining the initiative.
“Too often, the notion of mental health parity falls short of reality,” Wyden said. “These policies represent the first step towards addressing the mental health parity and ghost network challenges that I intend to build on in the coming months — especially the challenges I hear about consistently from families at home who aren’t able to find available mental health professionals covered in their insurance networks.”
The lawmakers indicated the discussion draft includes policies seeking to improve Medicare and Medicaid mental health parity while aiding the process of placing access to mental health and substance use disorder (SUD) services on par with physical health care.
“These proposals will help us gather additional data and increase transparency to ensure Medicare beneficiaries have access to affordable mental health services, on par with their access to physical health services,” Crapo said. “I thank Senators Bennet and Burr for their work on this discussion draft and look forward to receiving feedback on each mental health discussion draft from our colleagues and stakeholders.”
Discussion draft policies, per officials, include bolstering the accuracy of provider directories in Medicare Advantage plans; strengthening Medicaid requirements for managed care organizations and states to maintain regularly updated provider directories; and directing the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a study of the differences in enrollee cost-sharing and utilization management between behavioral and non-behavioral health services in Medicare Advantage and compared to traditional Medicare.