Parity/Access to Care Resources

Information and resources for New York psychiatrists and their patients experiencing difficulty in accessing insurance benefits for mental health and substance use disorder services

Identifying Fee and Reimbursement Discrimination for Mental Health Services 

As part of our efforts to enforce federal mental health parity laws, the New York State Psychiatric Association has prepared two forms for individuals to submit to their health insurance plans to request information about the fees paid for outpatient services including services used in the treatment of mental illness.  NYSPA spearheaded successful efforts to secure mental health parity in New York.  The American Psychiatric Association was a key advocate for enactment of federal law mandating health insurance parity for the treatment of mental illness.  Once state and federal parity laws were passed and became effective, our efforts now must switch to parity enforcement.

Parity Enforcement Project Initiative

Overview
The Parity Enforcement Project is a joint initiative of NYSPA and the APA intended to provide psychiatrists and their patients with a new approach and new tools to fight back against discriminatory practices by health plans. The central goal of the Project is to identify and challenge existing parity violations, particularly in the context of disparate medical necessity reviews for behavioral health benefits, including:

Ongoing Challenges in Parity Implementation Webinar

Presented by: Seth P. Stein, Esq. & Rachel Fernbach, Esq.
Webinar Date: March 30, 2016

Slide Presentation from Ongoing Challenges in Parity Implementation Webinar 3-30-2016