Click here to view video of Murphy’s remarks.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, received a commitment from Dr. Elinore McCance-Katz, the first nominee for the position of Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use, that she will work to improve enforcement of mental health parity laws and ensure that Americans receive equal access to behavioral health care. The Assistant Secretary position was created by mental health reforms championed by Murphy and U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) in their Mental Health Reform Act. Their bill was signed into law by President Obama in December 2016.

Murphy said, “I wanted to ask you a question about a subject that we talked about in my office and that is the sections of the [Mental Health Reform Act] which authorizes your positions on the issue of parity – making sure that insurance companies are covering mental illness. You have new enforcement powers, guidance that you can issue, audits that you conduct along with other partners’ named in the legislation. Talk for a moment about the steps that your office and the steps that SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) and HHS (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) can take to increase enforcement of the parity laws.”

McCance-Katz responded, “The issue of parity for the treatment of mental and substance use disorders has been an ongoing problem. We hear frequently about families and their loved ones who cannot access the care that they need for any number of reasons, but the inability to access payment for those services that they need is certainly a very common theme that is unfortunately, heard too much. I look forward to your guidance.”

Among other things, the bipartisan Mental Health Reform Act strengthened transparency and enforcement of mental health parity laws, promoted integrated mental health and physical health, and established new programs to assist those with, or at risk for, mental illness. A fact sheet on Murphy and Cassidy’s bill is available here.

The full text of Murphy’s exchange with Dr. McCance-Katz is below:

MURPHY: I want to thank the Chairman and Senator Murray for their work in helping pass at the end of last year legislation which authorizes the position for which Dr. McCance-Katz is being nominated for. I look forward to supporting her through the process – the weight on your shoulders will be great as the first Assistant Secretary for Substance Abuse and Mental Health, but I know you will be up to the job.

I wanted to ask you a question about a subject that we talked about in my office and that is the sections of the bill which authorizes your positions on the issue of parity – making sure that insurance companies are covering mental illness. The president’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis just released their interim report, and in it are recommendations on increasing parity enforcement, especially when it comes to these non-quantitative treatment limitations.

I just wanted to ask you to talk for a moment about the steps that your office and the steps that SAMHSA and HHS can take to increase enforcement of the parity laws, especially when it comes to these non-quantitative treatment limitations – the ways in which the bureaucracy is often used to restrict someone’s access to the mental health or substance abuse system – especially now, given that its part of the president’s commission’s recommendations.  

MCCANCE-KATZ: Thank you Senator Murphy for that question. The issue of parity for the treatment of mental and substance use disorders has been an ongoing problem. We hear frequently about families and their loved ones who cannot access the care that they need for any number of reasons, but the inability to access payment for those services that they need is certainly a very common theme that is unfortunately, heard too much. 

One of the things that I think I would want to do is to spend some time with CMS around issues of how treatment is paid for at this time and various ways that we might look at facilitating the care of individuals with mental and substance use disorder. Often, there are not a lot of treatment options available, so when there is not a lot of treatment options available, there tend to be limits placed that are not appropriate, but are placed because insurers and payers are not as familiar with those interventions. By working collaboratively with CMS, I think that we can come up with some different ways of paying for services and different kinds of services.

So what do I mean by that? There are  often two types of treatments: hospitalization or a community outpatient program. But what we need are levels of care, and those levels of care can be very difficult to get services paid for. There are economies and efficiencies to be had and they can be less costly. 

MURPHY: I just want to get another question. So I appreciate that, I just would recommend to you that you have new enforcement powers under this piece of legislation. So working collaboratively with CMS is great, but you have new enforcement powers, guidance that you can issue, audits that you conduct along with other partners’ named in the legislation. I look forward to looking with you on that.

MCCANCE-KATZ: Senator, I look forward to your guidance. This would be something that would be very important for me to be made aware of, and I will certainly do those things.

MURPHY: Thank you very much.

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