Norcross Asks Secretary of Labor Acosta About Mental Health Parity Enforcement
Norcross speaks to U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta about mental health parity enforcement.
In 2008, Congress began requiring mental health parity – which means, under law, insurance plans must provide the same level of coverage for mental health and substance-use disorders that they provide for physical health conditions. The problem is – the law cannot be adequately enforced for the millions of employees that receive health insurance through their employer.
Currently, Department of Labor (DOL) is only able to require employers to reimburse their workers after there are parity violations in their self-funded insurance plans. However, DOL cannot take action against the insurance company that is offering the insurance plan. That leaves DOL with no front-end enforcement mechanism to ensure there’s compliance with existing mental health and substance-use parity requirements.