The Mental Health Parity & Addiction Act of 2008 (and its ensuing Interim Final Rule) dealt a significant blow to employee assistance programs (EAPs) this year in mandating that health plans and issuers abolish the practice of using EAPs as a Gatekeeper unless they weren’t also the EAP in a similar capacity for medical conditions. [...]

Let’s face it, the behavioral healthcare field is confronted with an assortment of changes it hasn’t had to contend with on this scale ever before. Nobody is really certain what the near future holds. Parity and reforms represent a sea-change of massive proportions for the mental health and substance use disorder treatment fields. Moreover, it’s [...]

California’s experience with Parity since the year 2000 provides a glimpse into many of the potential pitfalls as well as a handful of thoughtful recommendations for greater success in implementation. The California experience reveals that, above all, communication to consumers and providers is critical. What was learned in California and [...]

On the one hand, I’m excited by the prospect that Medicaid eligibility rules might be reformed to cover people at up to 150% of poverty levels, swelling the ranks of Medicaid and ballooning the number of people in Medicaid managed care plans with Parity-compliant behavioral health benefits. On the other hand, [...]

Prepare for Cost-Cutting and Efficiency. On the heels (we hope) of the recession and in anticipation of Parity and Reforms, every stakeholder in the healthcare system—states, counties, hospitals, physicians, behavioral health providers, payers and employers—is going to hunker down and figure out how to move forward on [...]

To download a comprehensive, 25-page, detailed analysis from AHP on the recently issued MHPAEA Regulations as a PDF, click here.
On Friday, January 29th, the three Federal departments charged with the promulgation of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA), released their Interim Final Rule, also referred to [...]

Having just attended the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare conference in Florida last week, it is clear that the behavioral health field – much like the rest of America – is struggling to make sense of sweeping reforms. While the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) and the [...]

The RAND Corporation recently released a report expounding the virtues of electronic health records systems’ positive impact on healthcare costs. This hotly debated topic almost always addresses the cost of medical care, hospitalizations, labs, imaging and surgery and almost never includes the cost of behavioral health. Our field’s rate of technology adoption probably has something [...]

Next week’s webinar will offer payors a roadmap to readiness. Register here:
http://behavioralhealthcentral.com/index.php/Event-Registration/vmchk.ht
Parity Legislation Compliance Webinar Series
Part 1: Getting Ready for Mental Health Parity
Wednesday, December 9 at 2 p.m.

Sign up on or before December 4th and save $150! Enter ”parity” at checkout to receive your early registration discount.
The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) was signed into [...]

When the 2009 State of Health Care Quality Report lists 5 trouble spots – and all are related to behavioral healthcare – it should catalyze our efforts to achieve quality goals in our field. How do we make it happen?
I am suggesting that we approach quality in our field the same way we’ve been forced [...]