Federal Government Takes Parity Discussion to States

After meeting with Department of Labor representatives, psychiatrists in Connecticut are encouraging their colleagues in other states to work with their district branches, report problems they have with insurers, and raise public awareness about parity issues.

For about 15 years, federal law has required insurance companies to cover treatment for mental disorders at the same level as medical/surgical care. Yet Tichianaa Armah, M.D., still has patients who must call a laundry list of psychiatrists before they find someone who is in network, even though the lists were provided by their insurance companies. 

In August, Armah was joined by other psychiatrists and mental health advocates to describe examples like this directly to the people who have taken up the fight to crack down on insurers that are not complying with the federal parity law. Members of the Connecticut Psychiatric Society (CPS) and representatives of other mental health advocacy organizations met with Lisa Gomez, assistant secretary of the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Services Administration (EBSA), to discuss parity. Armah is chief psychiatry officer with Community Health Center Inc. and president of CPS.

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