Act now to ensure equitable coverage of mental health and substance use disorder treatment! 

Deadline Extended to October 17th, 2023!

In July, the Biden Administration proposed new rules to advance parity — the basic idea that mental health condition and substance use disorder care are covered at the same level of care for physical health conditions. Now, the public has a chance to comment on the proposal. The number of comments matters, so we need your help. 

Please help us tell the federal government how important it is to ensure equal treatment of mental health and substance use disorder (MH/SUD) care by insurance plans by submitting a comment on proposed updates to the enforcement rules. 

We have provided a template for you to submit. If you have a story to share, consider adding a few sentences that describe challenges you experienced accessing MH/SUD treatment. Examples might include:

• You called the list of providers in your health insurance plan’s network and none were accepting new patients.
• You had to wait a long time for an appointment or travel a long distance to receive care.
• You had to seek care out-of-network and experienced financial hardship.
• Your provider shared they can’t afford to take insurance because reimbursement (the amount your insurance pays) is too low.
• You were told that the care your provider said you needed was not medically necessary and had to pay for care yourself or forego care. 
• You were told you needed to complete another type of treatment before the one that you wanted/was recommended by your provider would be approved.
• You were denied care and the health plan provided a vague or confusing reason; the denial letter lacked complete rationale for the reason for the denial.

When you submit a regulatory comment, it is sent to the agency or agencies in charge of the proposed rule for review. The agency will review your submission and post them to regulations.gov, where it will be viewable by the public. Please keep in mind that your entire comment submission is an accessible public record, including any personal information added.

If you are not able to add a story, feel free to submit the comment as is.