Mental Health and Substance Use:: Treatment Exclusions in Employers Health Insurance Coverage.

摘要

On November 30, 2011, we issued a report entitled Mental Health and Substance Use: Employers Insurance Coverage Maintained or Enhanced Since Parity Act, but Effect of Coverage on Enrollees Varied.1 The report was written to fulfill a mandate in the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA) that required us to examine trends in coverage for mental health conditions and substance use disorders (MH/SU).2 As a follow-up to the report, you asked us to provide additional information about plans treatment exclusions for MH/SU.3 The information about treatment exclusions for MH/SU was based on survey data that we collected for our report to determine the extent to which employers covered MH/SU during the plan year in effect at the time of our surveyeither 2011 or 2010and in 2008. We surveyed a stratified random sample of small, medium, large, and very large employers about their most popular health plans for either the 2011 or 2010 plan year, as well as for 2008.