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Insurance
Summary of Ohio’s Mental Health Parity Bill
By the Coalition for Healthy Communities
On December 29, 2006 Governor Bob Taft signed S.B. 116, the Mental Health Parity bill into law. The legislation was sponsored by Senator Bob Spada (R-North Royalton). A companion bill was introduced by Rep. Jon Peterson. The bill goes into effect in September 2007.
Under S.B. 116, insurance companies are prevented from discriminating against biologically based mental illnesses. These illnesses are defined as: schizophrenia, schizo affective disorder, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, paranoia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and panic disorder.
Biologically based mental illnesses are part of the definition of "basic health care services", thereby requiring all health insuring corporations that offer coverage for basic health care services to offer the same coverage for these services, with certain exceptions.
Companies that are self-insured and therefore regulated under the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) are exempt from this state law. Companies with 50 or more employees can chose to be self-insured.
Health insurers may opt out of this new mandate if they can demonstrate that after providing mental health coverage for one year that their premiums have increased by more than 1% as a result of this additional coverage.
The bill goes into effect on September 27, 2007. For more information, see NAMI Ohio.
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