“To provide for civil monetary penalties for violations of mental health parity requirements.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section expands civil monetary penalties under ERISA §502(c)(10)—previously limited to plan sponsor failures to comply with genetic information nondiscrimination requirements—to also cover failures by plan sponsors, service providers, or plan administrators of group health plans to comply with mental health and substance use disorder (MH/SUD) parity requirements under ERISA §712(a). (As background, §712(a) requires parity between MH/SUD benefits and medical/surgical benefits in eligibility, financial requirements, treatment limitations, and out-of-network reimbursement.) It further (1) authorizes the Secretary of Labor to collect such penalties under §502(a)(6); (2) prohibits states from enforcing them under §502(b)(3), except for the Secretary's enforcement of §712; and (3) applies these amendments to plan years beginning after one year from enactment.