MHPAEA Case

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Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equality Act (MHPAEA) The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equality Act (MHPAEA) amended the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the Internal Revenue Code, and the Public Health Service Act and was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 2008. The first effective date for this act was on January 1, 2010 and required health insurance issuers and group health plans to ensure that treatment limitations and financial requirements, that are applicable to substance use disorders and mental health benefits, are no more restrictive than those limitations set by surgical or medical benefits (“The Mental Health,” 2010). Policy Analysis Karger and Stoesz (2010) were able to identify four key elements that made a policy analysis: historical background, problems that necessitated the policy, description, and analysis. These elements will help the worker, client, and all others who are potentially affected by the MHPAEA to understand the effectiveness of the policy in how it addresses substance abuse and mental health. Historical Background MHPAEA was originally applied to group health insurance and group health plans until it was amended by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act which was in turn amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 to …show more content…

Out of that population, 6.9%, or 16 million had at least one major depressive episode in the last year. This high prevalence of mental health issues has led to around $193.2 billion in lost revenue per year for American’s alone. The National Alliance on Mental Health (2002) has also speculated that serious mental illness, such as major depressive disorder, have accrued approximately $106.8 billion in healthcare expenditures and federally paid disability

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