Parity bill a winner for Oklahomans

A legislative session with more than its share of division and rancor included a bill that engendered just the opposite — to the benefit of Oklahomans facing mental health and substance abuse disorders.

Lawmakers gave easy approval to, and Gov. Kevin Stitt signed, Senate Bill 1718, which requires that health insurance coverage for mental illness be on par with what federal law mandates. The bill’s authors were Sen. John Michael Montgomery, R-Lawton, and Rep. Jon Echols, R-Oklahoma City.

The bill assigns Insurance Commissioner Glen Mulready with ensuring that all in-state health plans comply with a federal “financial parity” law signed in 2008 by former President George W. Bush.

The law prohibits discriminatory insurance coverage for those with mental health and substance abuse disorders. However, advocates say enforcement is lacking, and that can give insurers with room to deny coverage. The Trump administration’s commission on the country’s opioid crisis highlighted this problem in 2017.

As The Oklahoman’s Carmen Forman noted in reporting about this bill’s passage, the inequality in coverage can show itself in fewer in-network physicians or unequal reimbursement rates for behavioral health compared with physical health.

This effort matters in Oklahoma, where the rate of adults with serious mental illnesses is among the highest in the country and contributes to a variety of issues such as our high incarceration rate and suicide rate.

Nationally, the suicide rate increased 16% from 2008 to 2016, and in 2017 more than 17.3 million adults suffered at least one major depressive episode, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet here and elsewhere, getting insurance companies to pay for mental health treatment is a challenge. The Kennedy Forum, a group that advocates for parity legislation, says only one in three patients diagnosed with a serious mental illness receives minimally adequate treatment.

According to the National Alliance of Mental Illness earlier this year, a survey of more than 1,200 people found that more than 30% had their claims denied, delayed or result in limited coverage for mental health and substance abuse services.

Under SB 1718, insurance companies that offer mental health or substance use disorder plans would have to update the Insurance Commission annually on the process by which they determine the criteria for mental health benefits and the criteria for medical and surgical benefits. The department will have to make the reports public by June 1, 2021, and every June thereafter.

The Senate approved SB 1718 by a vote of 44-1 and the House approved it 100-0. In a tweet, House Minority Leader Rep. Emily Virgin, D-Norman, called it, “A fantastic piece of legislation that I was proud to support.” Such collegiality was rare during the session, but we were glad to see it emerge on this important issue.