Eight-State Review Finds Gaps In Medicaid MCO Compliance With Behavioral Health Parity Requirements

Medicaid managed care organization (MCO) contracts in eight states lacked provisions to require the plans to provide access to mental health and addiction treatment at parity with medical and surgical benefits. Five states and their MCOs did not conduct required parity analysis. All eight states did not provide timely documentation about parity compliance to the public. The eight states may not have ensured that all services were delivered to MCO enrollees in compliance with mental health and addiction treatment parity requirements.

The eight states included in the analysis were Arizona, Illinois, Kansas, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, and . . .