Financial Bailout Bill Includes Mental Health Parity Requirements

What follows is a post from Akin Gump’s labor practice. For more information, visit their blog, the Washington Labor & Employment Wire, or contact—

• Bill Allen, 202.887.4245, Washington DC

On October 3, 2008, as part of a compromise financial rescue plan intended to address the country’s credit crisis, a bipartisan House majority passed H.R. 1424 by a 263-171 vote. The bill was signed into law by President Bush less than an hour later. Taken up after the House failed to pass a financial rescue plan on September 29, the new bill included additional “sweeteners” intended to make the package more palatable to House members who voted down the original version of the financial bailout plan. It had passed the Senate on October 1, 2008, by a 74-25 vote.

Of particular interest to employers, the new law also includes a “mental health parity” provision that, on September 23, 2008, had been previously passed in separate bills by overwhelming majorities in the House (H.R. 6983) and Senate (H.R. 6049). Like these previous bills, the mental health parity provision of H.R. 1424 requires those health plans that do provide mental health coverage to provide this coverage in the same manner as they cover other physical health conditions. The law exempts group health plans of employers with fewer than 50 employees from these new requirements.