Addiction Solutions Campaign Forms Against Backdrop of Healthcare Policy Debates, National Opioid Epidemic

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Business Weekly -- As the nation faces a deadly opioid epidemic, four leading nonprofits in the addiction field -The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, the Legal Action Center (LAC), Partnership for Drug-Free Kids and the Treatment Research Institute (TRI) - have formed a timely collaboration. They are leveraging their multidisciplinary and deep organizational expertise in addiction research, policy and communications to increase access to effective prevention, treatment and long-term recovery for substance use disorders.

Among the first collective initiatives of the new Addiction Solutions Campaign (ASC) will be a major effort to secure equitable insurance coverage for addiction treatment, which consumers are entitled to under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (Parity Act). The Parity Act requires equitable coverage of substance use disorder and mental health benefits in both the public and private health insurance markets. The Act also mandates that health insurance plans' standards for substance use and mental health benefits be comparable to, and be no more restrictive than, the standards for other medical/surgical benefits. With vigorous enforcement, the Act should effectively prevent discriminatory insurance coverage for those with mental health and substance use disorders.

In-Depth Analysis: Parity Enforcement Framework Insufficient to Determine Parity Compliance

The ASC completed a recent, in-depth analysis of publicly available documents for seven major health plans offered in 2015 and 2016 in the small and large group markets in New York and Maryland. The analysis raises serious doubts about whether the current enforcement framework is adequate to protect the rights afforded to consumers under the Parity Act.

While the current enforcement framework primarily relies on consumers to raise issues with parity compliance, the analysis found that consumers are not provided with sufficient information by insurance plans to determine what treatment benefits they are eligible for and what barriers exist to accessing those benefits. In 5 of the 7 plans reviewed for this analysis, it was not evident from the insurance contract or the Schedule of Benefits that the plan under review covered all the critical benefits to treat substance use disorders. Further, consumers are not informed of their rights under the Parity Act nor are they provided with enough information regarding the processes and instructions for filing a parity complaint.

The analysis also found that state insurance regulators do not have sufficient information from insurance companies to confirm that their policies comply with the Parity Act. Neither consumers nor regulators, whose responsibility it is to protect consumers, can identify most Parity Act violations from plan documents routinely reviewed for plan approval and provided to consumers.

The lack of transparency in plan documents, coupled with the lack of clear processes and instructions for filing a parity complaint, put consumers at a severe disadvantage for being able to assert their rights under the Parity Act.

"At a time when effective treatment for opioid addiction in the U.S. is so desperately needed, lack of transparency is one barrier that can be immediately removed if insurers make information about covered services more transparent to consumers, and regulators demand this transparency before allowing plans to be sold" said Paul Samuels, Director and President of the Legal Action Center and spokesperson for the Addiction Solutions Campaign.

Opioid Epidemic at Alarming Levels, Significant Treatment Barriers Still Exist

Current enforcement of the Parity Act has failed to close the staggering addiction treatment gap and millions of Americans in need of treatment remain unable to access it. A 2016 report in Health Affairs1 found that private insurance companies covered only 18 percent of treatment for substance use disorders compared with 35 percent for all health expenditures.

According to the latest data available from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH, 2015), only 1 in 10 of the 20.8 million people who met the criteria for addiction received any type of treatment.

Should there be an overhaul of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the potential loss of substance use disorder treatment coverage for millions of families could be even greater.

"It is clear today that even as 144 Americans die every day from a drug overdose related death, we are still struggling to address an unprecedented epidemic of substance use disorders, and that the requirements of the Parity Act are still not being met," said Samuels. "The current enforcement system is flawed and some families are paying the ultimate price. Families often don't know what their coverage is, or how or where to complain."

A Complaint-Driven System: Puts Burden on Policyholders at Most Vulnerable Time

Currently, parity enforcement depends on individuals notifying regulators about potential violations and appealing coverage denials. Consumers must engage in a burdensome complaint-driven process to secure the coverage to which they are entitled. Often this is happening for parents and families while they are in a crisis with a loved one who is struggling with addiction, and when denial of care can be deadly.

Bill Williams is a father and teacher from New York. He and his wife, Margot Head, lost their son William to a drug overdose in 2012.

"Getting clear, direct information from insurers is difficult," said Williams. "As for our family, we were not aware of the Parity Act. What became William's fatal overdose occurred four days after he was denied in-patient detox that was deemed 'not medically necessary.' Would obtaining parity intervention immediately upon his denial have resulted in a lifesaving admission within four days? Could a complaint have been successfully resolved in that short time? We'll never know."

The Addiction Solutions Campaign Helps Advocate on Behalf of Families and Consumers

To achieve better compliance, the ASC is advocating for specific recommendations to shift the current enforcement framework from consumer complaints to prospective regulatory review. The ASC recommends that insurance regulators obtain a 'Parity Transparency and Compliance Report' from insurers documenting that they are responsive to the Parity Act's standards so that they may conduct comprehensive plan review prior to approval.

Keywords for this news article include: Epidemiology, Legal Issues, Mental Health, Health Insurance, Addiction Medicine, The Partnership for Drug-Free Kids.

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