The EDC thanks all of
you who responded to our action alert and reached out to your Representatives! The
House of Representatives has sent a letter to Secretary Kathleen Sebelius urging
parity for eating disorders. This is a companion letter to one the EDC did with
the Senate .
We want to especially thank our House
champions, Representatives Ted Deutch, Alcee Hastings and Hank Johnson. Their
offices worked tirelessly with the EDC to build support for the letter and
coordinated the House effort. We are very proud to announce the letter is
signed by 17 Representatives. In addition to our three champions, the letter is
also signed by Representatives John Conyers, Charles Rangel, Eliot Engel, James
Moran , Carolyn Maloney, Lois Capps, Allyson Schwartz, Debbie Wasserman
Schultz, Keith Ellison, Timothy Walz, Michael Michaud , Richard Nolan, Jared
Polis, and Lois Frankel.
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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment