Connecticut mental health providers want state lawmakers to hold insurers accountable for complying with the state’s 2019 Mental Health Parity Act.
The law was meant to require insurers to cover mental health treatment the same way they do physical health services. But providers complain that this is not happening.
Kiki Kennedy, a Yale professor of psychiatry and legislative chair for the Connecticut Psychiatric Society, said parity failures hurt their patients as clinicians continue to have a difficult time dealing with insurers.
“We are exhausted from spending our precious time on the phone trying to explain to a bureaucrat with no clinical experience why our services are medically necessary,” she said.
“We trained as mental health clinicians to spend our time treating patients, not dealing with reimbursement rigmaroles,” Kennedy added.
A new bill calls for health insurers to certify that they comply with state and federal parity laws annually.
It would also establish a fund to support enforcement of the law and consumer education.
A similar bill failed last year.
