Mark E. Lutes, Adam C. Solander, Members of the Firm, and Kevin Malone, a 2015 Summer Associate, authored “MHPAEA Enforcement Is Here: What In-House Counsel Should Do to Prepare,” published by Inside Counsel. The article discusses how organizations can begin to comply with the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) regulations.

Following is an excerpt:

The federal regulatory regime is extremely complex and federal and judicial interpretation of key issues remains unclear. In addition, MHPAEA’s narrow preemption language has led to surprising and extreme interpretations of employer and issuer obligations under state parity statutes that have led to significant equitable relief. Such relief has included new residential benefit mandates, wholesale reform of claims processing and prior-authorization procedures, claims review staff reorganizations and retraining, and the re-review of millions of dollars in claims denials.

Considering the uncertainty in federal audit and enforcement activity and the fact that every state has some form of unique parity-like statute, this area should now be a high priority for both employer and health plan issuer inside counsel.

Jump to Page

Privacy Preference Center

When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

Performance Cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.