MANAGED CARE

Mental Health Parity Bill (1996)

Key Provisions Of The Law

• The law equates aggregate lifetime limits and annual limits for mental health benefits with aggregate lifetime limits and annual limits for medical and surgical benefits. The yearly and lifetime caps, however, are unequal.

What’s Not Covered

• There is no mandate for mental health benefits in insurance plans.
• Coverage is not provided for treatment of substance abuse and chemical dependency
• There are no rules or guidelines governing out-of-pocket limits, copayments, arbitrary treatment termination, or quality of care for patients.
• The law does not apply to businesses with less than 50 employees.
• An employer can also be exempt if it can be shown that mental health parity would raise costs more than 1%.

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