Senate passes scaled-back 'mental health parity' bill

By Kay Lazar, Globe Staff

Patients with autism, eating disorders, substance abuse problems or post traumatic stress disorder would have greater access to treatments under proposed legislation that passed the state Senate today.

The measure differs from a more sweeping version of the "mental health parity" bill that passed the House earlier. That proposal would require insurance plans to cover all mental health disorders the same as physical conditions and would allow any treatments that were medically needed.

Both the Senate and House versions would maintain the current law's requirement that health insurers provide full coverage for nine of the most common psychiatric conditions: schizophrenia; schizoaffective disorder, major depression; bipolar disorder; paranoia and other psychotic disorders; obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder; delirium and dementia; and affective disorders.

Massachusetts law now allows health insurers to limit treatments for dozens of other mental health diagnoses to 24 outpatient sessions and 60 days of hospitalization per year.

Under the Senate plan, four additional conditions would be exempted from those limitations. But the Senate's measure would also give the state mental health commissioner authority to require unlimited coverage for any disorder contained in the standard diagnostic manual of mental illnesses, known as the DSM.

Representative Ruth Balser, a Newton Democrat who sponsored the original legislation, said she was disappointed the Senate did not recognize all mental health conditions as worthy of equal treatment.

"The increase in costs to the insurance industry would be negligible and it would have said, once and for all, that all mental health conditions should be treated like all medical conditions and that’s the only way to get rid of the stigma," said Balser, a clinical psychologist.

Lawmakers will try to reconcile the differences before the legislative session ends next Thursday.