Washington, DC, September 10, 2024  – AACAP applauds the new mental health parity regulations released by the U.S. Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Treasury. These regulations will hold payors accountable for complying with mental health parity requirements and expand access to mental health care. AACAP has long advocated for stronger mental health parity laws, and today’s final rule is a significant step toward achieving true parity.

Most of the regulations will take effect on January 1, 2025, ensuring psychiatrists are appropriately recruited into networks and reimbursed, including for out-of-network care. The rule will ban more restrictive utilization management practices, like prior authorization, if not equally applied to comparable physical health services.

The recent RTI International report highlighted significant disparities in access to in-network mental health care, showing that psychiatrists are reimbursed 19% less than physician assistants and 8.2% less than nurse practitioners, on average. For patients 18 years old or younger, psychiatrists are reimbursed 9% less than primary care physicians and 22% less than medical/surgical specialists. The data shows that better mental health parity compliance is long overdue.

The final rule is intended to reduce mortality and increase use of mental health and substance use disorder services, resulting in better health outcomes. Sixteen years after mental health parity became law, patients will finally gain protection from unlawful parity violations. Read AACAP’s comments on the 2023 proposed parity regulation here and here.

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The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry promotes the healthy development of children, adolescents, and families through advocacy, education, and research. Child and adolescent psychiatrists are the leading physician authority on children’s mental health. www.aacap.org