Guidelines for Codifying Federal Provisions

At its foundation, the federal Parity Act bars most health insurance plans from discriminating against mental health and substance use disorder (MH/SUD) benefits when compared to medical and surgical benefits. The federal Parity Act regulations are the floor, not the ceiling, and states have significant latitude to impose requirements on health insurance issuers that are more restrictive than the Federal law.

This toolkit helps states in key actions:

• States can explicitly codify – and strengthen – these critical provisions by directly incorporating the federal law into statute, or all of its components by including the suggested text outlined in this toolkit.

Download to see all of the recommendations to help improve MH/SUD parity in your state.