Olympia - WA - On Oct. 22nd, Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler held a 2-hour hearing on the implementation of Washington's long-passed mental health parity law (2005). As most of our members can attest, there has been a refusal by many insurers to abide by the parity laws (i.e., refusal to cover autism and almost all DSM diagnoses paired with developmental disorders ), restricting the treatments designed to treat those DSM diagnoses and DD' and placing unreasonable caps on any coverage, a contradiction to Mental Health Parity.
Commissioner Kreidler responded with a strong message saying that he intends to write rules to require insurers to comply with the parity laws. National Insurance Trade Association representative, Mel Sorensons's main argument that this was not a good time to implement the law, because of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and essential benefits, was not a compelling one.
Families and providers offered excellent and compelling testimony. Over 100 people that attended were extremely attentive, and it was clear Commissioner Kreidler has every intent to write new rules to clarify how mental health parity should work in the insurance market.
We will make sure you have a voice in these rules and will keep you posted on their development.