Evaluating State Mental Health and Addiction Parity Statutes: A Technical Report
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Appendix C: Parity Track and
Proposed Legislation
Parity Track
ParityTrack.org is a collaborative online forum that aggregates and elevates parity work taking
place across the country. It was developed to address the need for accountability among all
actors responsible for parity compliance. This effort includes the following activities:
n Tracking parity legislative, regulatory, and legal activities in all 50 states and at the
federal level to monitor implementation throughout the country
n Developing model resources, such as legislation and compliance tools, that state and
federal policymakers can use to ensure full compliance
n Creating comprehensive and detailed issue briefs on parity and related topics to
increase knowledge of behavioral health insurance laws
n Collecting consumer and provider stories involving behavioral health care restrictions
or denials that can be used to illustrate the harm associated with parity violations
Environmental scans identify proposed legislation and regulatory and enforcement activities
using LexisNexis, LexisNexis StateNet, Thomson Reuters Westlaw, and expert opinion. The
findings are housed on ParityTrack.org, which is a central resource for up-to-date parity
information related to mental health and substance use disorders including legislation,
regulation, and litigation. The primary purpose of Parity Track is to help consumers understand
their rights under the Federal Parity Law and state parity laws.
Proposed Legislation
After a review of bills included on Parity Track that were introduced throughout the most
recent state legislative sessions, several trends emerged during analysis. State lawmakers are
considering parity related measures that loosely fall into three broad categories:
n Expanded mandated benefits
n Managed care technique restrictions, and
n Required enforcement and compliance procedures
