This report, released October 6 by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), analyzes the provisions in national health care reform legislation in the House (H.R. 3200) and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (S. 1679) that affect behavioral health care, including those provisions which interact with the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA), signed into law on October 3, 2008 (P.L. 110-343).

From the executive summary:

Under H.R. 3200, which was ordered to be reported as amended by the House Committees on Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, and Education and Labor, qualified health benefits plans (which would be required to provide behavioral health services) would be required to comply with the MHPAEA rules regarding the amount, duration, and scope of mental health and substance abuse benefits. This is also true of the minimum qualifying coverage specified in the Senate HELP bill, S. 1679. MHPAEA would also require carve-out programs (which are specialized managed care organizations that administer the behavioral health benefits for an insurance plan) to comply with the parity requirements in the same manner that the insurer would have been required.

Three other provisions in the health care reform proposals affect the behavioral health care system. First, there are provisions that aim to address the issue of behavioral health provider shortage by providing for the establishment of grant programs to train and educate such providers. Second, some provisions aim to address the issue of affordability and lack of coordination of behavioral health care through the establishment of federally qualified behavioral health centers and co-location of primary and specialty care services with behavioral health services. Third, a provision in the Energy and Commerce version of H.R. 3200 aims to address research needs in specialty areas of mental health care by authorizing studies on postpartum depression. 

The report is available from the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare here:  Behavioral Health Care in H.R. 3200 and S. 1679 (PDF | 947.4 KB)

Congressional Research Service. (2009). Behavioral Health Care in H.R. 3200 and S. 1679. Sundararaman, R.