INSURANCE 101: The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act

As defined by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA) is a federal law that generally prevents group health plans and health insurance issuers that provide mental health or substance use disorder (MH/SUD) benefits from imposing less favorable benefit limitations on those benefits than on medical/surgical benefits.

MHPAEA originally applied to group health plans and group health insurance coverage and was amended by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (collectively referred to as the “Affordable Care Act”) to also apply to individual health insurance coverage.

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has jurisdiction over public sector group health plans (referred to as “non-Federal governmental plans”), while the Departments of Labor and the Treasury have jurisdiction over private group health plans.