{"id":2544,"date":"2016-04-12T07:06:41","date_gmt":"2016-04-12T11:06:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=2544"},"modified":"2016-04-12T07:07:13","modified_gmt":"2016-04-12T11:07:13","slug":"even-under-parity-rules-plans-may-charge-higher-specialty-copays-for-counseling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=2544","title":{"rendered":"Even Under Parity Rules, Plans May Charge Higher Specialty Copays For Counseling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(By &#8211; Michelle Andrews, Kaiser Health\u00a0News)<\/p>\n<p>This week I addressed reader questions about insurance coverage for\u00a0mental health counseling and infertility, as well as what would happen if a state expanded its Medicaid program midyear.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q. My son requires regular counseling from a psychologist to treat his attention-deficit\/hyperactivity disorder. These\u00a0are treated as medical specialty visits rather than general medical appointments in terms of copay requirements. Why does this coverage difference exist and is it consistent with the federal requirement that there be parity between medical and behavioral health coverage?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dol.gov\/ebsa\/mentalhealthparity\/\" target=\"_blank\">Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 requires<\/a> most health plans to provide mental health and substance abuse treatment <a href=\"http:\/\/www.apa.org\/helpcenter\/parity-guide.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">benefits that are at least as generous<\/a>\u00a0as the plan\u2019s benefits for medical and surgical care. <a href=\"http:\/\/khn.org\/news\/even-under-parity-rules-plans-may-charge-higher-specialty-copays-for-counseling\/?utm_campaign=KHN%3A+First+Edition&amp;utm_source=hs_email&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=28323949&amp;_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8Il57vPFenNwJhMEUZppr4a86j1mlBRIfpUiV0gIF2Kya4T1C3d-VG3vqzb0ZNVj_blEHQe1aj2dhePhVYUGjDFxiJiQ&amp;_hsmi=28323949\" target=\"_blank\">Read more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Kaiser Health News\u00a0is\u00a0a nonprofit national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-899 \" src=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-300x156.png\" alt=\"khn-logo1\" width=\"92\" height=\"48\" srcset=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-300x156.png 300w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-1024x533.png 1024w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-390x205.png 390w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1.png 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 92px) 100vw, 92px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<pre><strong>Notice<\/strong>: The link provided above connects readers to the full content of the posted article. The URL (internet address) for this link is valid on the posted date; medicarereport.org cannot guarantee the duration of the link\u2019s validity. Also, the opinions expressed in these postings are the viewpoints of the original source and are not explicitly endorsed by AMAC, Inc.; the AMAC Foundation, Inc.; or medicarereport.org.<\/pre>\n<figure class=\"related\"><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(By &#8211; Michelle Andrews, Kaiser Health\u00a0News) This week I addressed reader questions about insurance coverage for\u00a0mental health counseling and infertility,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-care-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2544"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2546,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544\/revisions\/2546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}