New Regulations and Enforcement Activity for MHPAEA: What You Need to Know

As part of Crowell & Moring’s ongoing effort to keep clients informed about the most significant developments stemming from the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (“MHPAEA”), please join us on November 18th at 12PM ET for the New Regulations and Enforcement Activity for MHPAEA: What You Need to Know webinar. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (“CAA”) amended MHPAEA by adding a requirement for plans and issuers to perform and document comparative analyses of non-quantitative treatment limitation (“NQTL”) comparative analyses. Since this amendment, federal regulators have issued numerous requests for documentation to national and regional group health plan sponsors and health insurance issuers, follow-up requests, and some determinations of non-compliance. In the meantime, state departments of insurance have initiated a multitude of market conduct examinations relating to parity compliance. The federal Department of Labor continues to pursue audits and inquiries examining MHPAEA compliance, particularly with respect to NQTLs. In addition to the enforcement activities by regulators, private litigants have been actively suing plans and issuers, alleging MHPAEA violations and seeking damages. Crowell & Moring has been on the vanguard, helping health insurance issuers respond to government inquiries and defend against lawsuits.

MHPAEA generally requires that a group health plan or health insurance issuer covering mental health and substance use disorder (“MH/SUD”) benefits offers those benefits in parity with medical/surgical benefits. Since the enactment of the law in 2008 and the promulgation of its implementing regulations in 2010 and 2013, measuring parity has been a challenge—especially for NQTLs. Recent enforcement and compliance measures, as well as private lawsuits, have been focused on the permissible application of NQTLs. This webinar will review MHPAEA’s requirements, the respective jurisdiction of the agencies that enforce it, the remedies available to those agencies as well as to private litigants, and trends in enforcement and compliance efforts, among other topics. We will also discuss proactive steps for plans and issuers to consider in developing appropriate responses and offer practical observations about compliance and related enforcement activity in this area. 

With our deep mental health parity knowledge, and our wide-ranging current experience in assisting clients in responding to MHPAEA inquiries from regulators, we look forward to providing a thorough overview of the significant developments in the area of MHPAEA compliance and enforcement activity. 

We hope to see you there!