ASAM Urges Congress to Provide the USDOL Civil Monetary Penalty Authority to Enforce Health Coverage Parity for Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders

Last month, the U.S. DOL, HHS, and the Treasury sent a damning report to Congress elucidating health plans’ failure to ensure health coverage parity for mental health and substance use disorders. In a letter to Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Schumer, ASAM, the Kennedy Forum, and other organizations supported the USDOL’s unambiguous call on Congress to amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and to provide it with the authority to effectively deter plans from violating the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA).

It is critical Congress provide the USDOL with a civil monetary penalty authority to enforce the MHPAEA. Doing so would allow the USDOL to step in more aggressively when necessary to change plans’ coverage practices, make parity a reality, and increase access to life-saving treatment. Currently, the USDOL has only one investigator for every 12,500 plans. Moreover, if added to the USDOL’s existing similar authority for violations of the Genetic Information and Non-Discrimination Act (GINA), insurers, plan sponsors, and administrators that exercise “reasonable diligence” to comply with the law would be protected by an existing safe harbor provision.   

In the past, assuring the civil monetary penalty authority to ensure parity compliance has enjoyed bipartisan support. In the letter, organizations stated Congress should “seize this opportunity to give USDOL the powers it is requesting help end discrimination against individuals living with mental health and substance use disorders.”