Employers Sponsoring Self-Funded Health Plans:
Does Your Plan Comply with Mental Health Parity Requirements?
As rising health care costs drive employers toward self-insured and level-funded health plans, critical compliance responsibilities shift from insurers to employer plan sponsors. One of the most significant: compliance with the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008( MHPAEA).
What Employers Need to Know
• Employers with 50 + employees must ensure mental health and substance use disorder benefits are comparable to medical and surgical benefits
• MHPAEA enforcement is a top U. S. Department of Labor priority, with required annual audits of group health plans
• Compliance requires a detailed comparative analysis meeting complex federal regulations
• Comparative analyses must be produced within 10 days of a regulator request or 30 days of a participant request
• These reports cannot be created on short notice and must be prepared and maintained in advance
• Penalties for noncompliance can be severe— up to $ 110 per day per affected participant
How Bowles Rice Can Help Our employee benefits attorneys work proactively to ensure your plan’ s analysis is current, compliant, and ready when needed. We assist plan sponsors with:
• Obtaining and analyzing data from third-party administrators and service providers
• Preparing compliant MHPAEA comparative analyses
• Maintaining defensible documentation ready for audit or disclosure
Contact us to ensure your self-funded health plan is protected.
Lesley Russo | 304.347.1717 lesley. russo @ bowlesrice. com
Ben Thomas | 304.347.1121 bthomas @ bowlesrice. com
Grant Shuman | 304.347.1150 grant. shuman @ bowlesrice. com
Gabriele Wohl | 304.347.1137 gwohl @ bowlesrice. com
bowlesrice. com
600 Quarrier Street • Charleston, WV 25301 Responsible Attorney: Marc Monteleone
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