We at the EDC are very excited about a letter
Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) is sending to Health and Human Services Secretary
Kathleen Sebelius. Thank you so much to
all of you who reached out to your Senator!
The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act
passed in 2008 (MHPAEA). Nearly five years later we are still waiting for HHS
to promulgate the final regulations. Very
simply, the Parity regulations will explain how the HHS will interpret the
law. MHPAEA regulations are long
overdue, and because they are so overdue we’ve seen a lot of confusion around
the interpretation of parity law. See our previous post here.
In addition to those of you who wrote letters, during
our most recent lobby day we worked very hard to generate support for this
letter, and constituents urged their Senators to sign on to the letter. We are
very proud to announce that Senator Baldwin’s letter is also signed by Senators
Tom Harkin (D-IA), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Al Franken (D-MN), Amy Klobachar
(D-MN), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Ron Wyden (D-OR),
Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
This letter is so important because it not only
urges HHS to promulgate the rules on Parity, but goes further requesting that
HHS (1) clarify that denying coverage for residential inpatient treatment for
eating disorders because there is not a ‘medical analogy’ is a violation of
existing parity law and (2) applying limits to scope of treatment for eating
disorders more restrictively than medical/surgical benefits is a violation of
parity. This clarity in the final rule
would prevent many people suffering with an eating disorder.
Thank you all for your support—together we can
achieve parity for eating disorders! We are making progress because of you!
No comments:
Post a Comment