| Patrick Kennedy sees a path to his longtime goal: parity in insurance coverage between mental and physical health care. How so? The former representative from Rhode Island listened when insurers complained last year that the path to parity is blocked by workforce shortages. He wants to convene labor unions, insurers and the government to come up with a way to boost the mental health workforce. “What I’ve really wanted to do is create an AFL-CIO for addiction,” he said, adding that Congress can help with “an infrastructure bill” for mental health. He also sees a bigger role for community mental health centers, first funded under the last piece of legislation his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, signed before his assassination. He wants to integrate community behavioral health centers with physical health centers to better serve Americans with mental health issues. State of play: Kennedy wrote the 2008 Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act that ordered insurers to cover mental health on the same terms as physical health. The Biden administration last year accused the insurance industry of skirting the law by providing inadequate networks of mental health providers. Patients often find that providers aren’t taking new patients, forcing them to go out of network for care, the administration charged. So the Health and Human Services, Treasury and Labor departments proposed rules that would mandate that insurers analyze their coverage to ensure equivalent access to mental health care. The companies would have to look at how they respond to requests from doctors to authorize treatments for mental illnesses, as compared to physical ones, as well as their provider networks and how much they reimburse providers out of network. The rule would also establish when health plans can’t require doctors to obtain the insurers’ prior authorization to prescribe a medicine or procedure, or otherwise put up roadblocks for patients seeking mental health, as well as substance use, treatment. Insurers could face fines for failing to offer comparable coverage for mental health. Kennedy’s role: The eight-term Democrat, who retired from Congress at the end of 2010 and whose mental health efforts are informed by his own struggles, has a new job as a partner at consulting firm Healthsperien, where he plans to promote the regulation with a conciliatory message. “I tell the payers, rather than come up and fight the parity rule, they should come to the White House and say, ‘Here's what we want to do to help you with the workforce shortage,’" he told Ruth. "They have a moral responsibility to help meet this crisis." Why it matters: As of October 2023, more than half of 18- to 30-year-olds were experiencing symptoms of anxiety or depression, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And the CDC reports that more than 100,000 people are dying from drug overdoses every year.
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