On February 14, the Senate Health, Education, Labor
and Pension Committee voted 18-3 in favor of S.558, the Mental Health Parity
Act of 2007.Senator Kennedy, who chairs
the committee, indicated that he will push for full Senate action on the bill
within the next few months.Maryland’s Senator Mikulski voted in favor of the bill.
The bill does not mandate group health plans provide any mental health
coverage.However, if a plan does offer
mental health coverage, the financial requirements applied to mental health
benefits must be no more restrictive than the financial requirements applied to
substantially all covered medical and surgical benefits.Also, treatment limitations applied to mental
health benefits must be no more restrictive than the treatment limitations
applied to other benefits.For more
details on the bill, please visit http://help.senate.gov/Maj_press/2007_02_12_b.pdf
