In Case You Haven't Heard…

Abstract

The American Medical Association (AMA) has commended the Department of Labor (DOL) for fining United Behavioral Healthcare and United Healthcare $13.6 million for not providing adequate mental health and substance use disorder treatment. The Labor Department ruling was handed down last month (see ADAW, Aug. 23), and now the AMA, on behalf of its physician members, is urging that further steps be taken. These steps should involve increasing efforts to hold insurers to parity laws, including the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) of 2008, according to a September letter from AMA CEO James Madara, M.D., to the secretary of labor, which brought up the fact that the insurance company violations were found to go back to at least 2013. “United's failure to comply with the law for patients with mental illness and substance use disorders is hardly limited to this action,” the AMA letter states. “As the AMA highlighted in our July 24, 2020, letter to the DOL, there is increasing evidence of widespread, frequent violations by many different insurers — but these violations only come to light because of meaningful oversight and enforcement actions. It is deeply concerning that each time regulators investigate, they find violations. In Delaware a few weeks ago, for example, regulators announced more than $1.3 million in fines for repeated discriminatory violations of mental health and substance use disorder parity requirements. At this point in MHPAEA's existence, there is no reason for health insurers to continue to violate the law — violations that harm patients with mental illness and invariably cause considerable harm and suffering, including long‐term disability and death.” For the letter, go to https://searchlf.ama‐assn.org/letter/documentDownload?uri=%2Funstructured%2Fbinary%2Fletter%2FLETTERS%2F2021‐9‐2‐Letter‐to‐Walsh‐re‐Mental‐Illness‐v3.pdf.