H.R. 7539: Strengthening Behavioral Health Parity Act

116th Congress

To strengthen parity in mental health and substance use disorder benefits.

Sponsor: Rep. Joseph Kennedy — D — MA

Requires the Secretaries of the Departments of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS), and Treasury to request a minimum of 20 comparative analyses per year from health insurance plans. The analyses would include potential violations of parity requirements between medical and mental health and substance abuse services and would involve potential noncompliance with nonquantitative treatment limitations (NQTLs). NQTLs are practices such as prior authorization, medical management standards, step therapy, and prescription drug formulary design. The bill also requires the Secretaries to include a summary of the comparative analyses in a report to the Congress each year and to include examples of noncompliance found through those investigations in program guidance that is issued every two years.

View the full vote history of this bill on GovTrack.us.