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Contact Media Services: (240) 276-2130

SAMHSA News Bulletin

Date: 12/3/2009
Media Contact: SAMHSA Press
Telephone: 240-276-2130

New Study Highlights How National Mental Health Parity Law Can Benefit from California’s Experience

A new article published in the journal Psychiatric Services, examines experiences with implementing California‘s mental health parity law, and discusses implications for the implementation of the federal Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008.  This act is designed to ensure that insurance plans offer mental health coverage as part of the overall health benefit packages and to eliminate disparities between the coverage for mental health and more traditional physical health conditions.

The report’s central finding is that maximizing the effectiveness of these parity efforts may depend heavily on educating the public about their insurance benefits. The study in particular found that the lack of consumer knowledge of the parity law is a challenge. Nearly half of the consumer focus group participants indicated that they were not familiar with California’s parity law even though more than three-quarters of them reported that they had a diagnosis covered by the law. Providers who participated in the focus group indicated that many consumers lacked understanding of their mental health benefits before and even after the law was implemented.

The study of California’s parity law was conducted by Dr. Margo Rosenbach, Dr. Timothy Lake, and Ms. Susan Williams from Mathematica Policy Research and Dr. Jeffrey Buck from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).  The law, implemented in 2000, requires insurance plans to offer mental health coverage as part of the overall health benefit packages and eliminates disparities between the way mental health and more traditional physical health conditions are covered.

This study, conducted from September 2001 through January 2006, was geared to determine how effectively the parity law was adopted and what lessons from this experience could be applied to the national parity law, which went into effect in October 3, 2009. Entitled, Implementation of Mental Health Parity: Lessons From California, the study not only identified the importance of raising consumer awareness of parity but also the need for increased oversight of health plans’ performance in terms of issues like access and equality.

The analysis is based on an extensive set of site visits, telephone interviews, and consumer and provider focus groups.  A 14 person advisory panel reviewed the study design and analysis. The panel comprised California stakeholders and national experts.

For a copy of the complete study go to: http://ps.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/reprint/ps;60/12/1589

SAMHSA is a public health agency within the Department of Health and Human Services. The agency is responsible for improving the accountability, capacity and effectiveness of the nation's substance abuse prevention, addictions treatment, and mental health services delivery system.


Page Last Updated: 12/3/2009