In 2008, the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) was released. It required health insurers and groups of health plans to provide the same level of benefits for mental and/or substance use disorder treatment (MH/SUD) and services that are offered through medical/surgical (M/S) care. Further, through the Affordable Care Act (ACA), requirements were expanded to include the Health Insurance Marketplace. In 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a required analysis and final report from States that offer Medicaid to select benefit plans to demonstrate compliance in MHPAEA.
As required, the Division of Health Care Financing and Policy (DHCFP) is currently reviewing benefit packages offered to Nevada Medicaid recipients to ensure a completed compliance review will be conducted by October 2, 2017. The DHCFP will take all measures necessary to ensure Parity across both M/S and MH/SUD services.
The DHCFP is currently in the process of a full service benefit review to ensure Parity compliance is reached or already being demonstrated, no later than October 2, 2017. The intent of this webpage is to notify the public of the efforts being made to achieve parity by the October 2, 2017 deadline.
The CMS has information available through their website CMS.gov. It includes an introduction to MHPAEA, a summary of MHPAEA Protections, Key changes made by MHPAEA, MHPAEA regulation, fact sheets and FAQs, and regulations and guidance.
Additional guidance can be located at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) webpage.