Federal News & Issues

Nov 30, 2017

Data Points to Potential Violations of Mental Health Parity Laws; Shows Higher Out-of-Pocket Costs for Consumers When Compared to Physical Health

(Washington, DC) – Physical healthcare providers are receiving significantly higher payments from insurers than addiction and mental health providers for the same types of services, finds a groundbreaking, independent report published today by Milliman, Inc. and released by a coalition of America’s leading mental health and addiction advocacy organizations. In the Milliman report, commissioned by the Bowman Family Foundation, researchers found that along with payment disparities, which occur in 46 out of 50 states, “out-of-network” use of addiction and mental health treatment providers by consumers is extremely high when compared to physical...

Nov 15, 2017

ARLINGTON, Va. – People with mental illness reported that they were more likely to be insured and thus better able to access health and mental health services following implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), according to a new study published online today in Psychiatric Services in Advance. Effects were seen in states that had expanded Medicaid and in states that did not.

Researchers lead by Kathleen C. Thomas, Ph.D., with the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, examined the impact of health reform for people with mental illness. They used the Health Reform Monitoring Survey to examine health insurance, access to care, and employment for more than 1,500 people with mental health conditions pre- and post-implementation of ACA. They compared survey results from 2013, before ACA implementation (...