Connecticut lawmakers marked the beginning of mental health awareness month on Thursday with calls to update a state law that attempts to force insurance companies to pay for care.
Governor Ned Lamont (D) said calls to the 211 hotline for emergency mental health, addiction, and housing services, were up 30% last year.
“We want you to come forward,” Lamont said. “We have a 211 hotline. Any questions, any doubts, any worries, you call that hotline.”
Advocates and lawmakers said the state has made strides in reducing the stigma around seeking support for mental health, but barriers to counseling and treatment still stand.
Advocates — including Attorney General William Tong (D) and Comptroller Sean Scanlon (D) — want the legislature to strengthen the state’s mental health parity law. The bill aims to keep insurance companies from restricting mental health services any more than they restrict surgical or other medical care.
Scanlon championed the law when it passed in 2019.
“What it needs to do is make sure that nobody is discriminated against by an insurance company or treated differently because they're looking for health care for a disease of the brain and not a disease of the body,” Scanlon said.
Hundreds of pieces of written testimony were submitted on the bill. A recurring complaint from healthcare workers was about a section of the bill that would require “site neutral payments,” which would standardize care prices no matter the setting.
“The requirement for providers and health insurers to use equal reimbursement rates for all contracting healthcare providers in the same geographic region and to reimburse providers for outpatient services regardless of where the service is provided will have unintended consequences on hospitals’ and health systems’ ability to provide life-saving, around-the-clock care to all patients,” Middlesex Health President and CEO Vincent G. Capece, Jr. said.
The bill was referred to the Senate Judiciary Comittee on Thursday.
