11 things to know about the Mental Health ABC Act, according to a press release from Senate President Karen Spilka’s office:
1. The new law mandates insurance coverage for an annual mental health wellness exam.
2. It seeks to prevent those in crisis from being placed into an emergency room for weeks due to no open beds for mental care. It creates online portals with a search function that allows providers to find open beds, and it creates an expedited process for patients under 18.
3. The law requires an equitable reimbursement rate floor for evaluation and management services that is consistent with primary care.
4. It mandates coverage and eliminates prior authorization for mental health acute treatment and stabilization services.
5. Payers are required to cover emergency service programs, community-based and recovery-oriented programs and stabilization services.
6. The law creates an Office of Behavioral Health Promotion to coordinate all state initiatives that promote behavioral health and wellness.
7. It requires state-contracted and commercial health plans to cover behavioral health benefits offered through the psychiatric collaborative care model.
8. Behavioral health assessments and referrals are now required for children entering the foster care system.
9. The law creates an interagency review team to ensure young people with complex behavioral health needs are helped quickly.
10. People who live with disabilities and are older than 26 are allowed to stay on their parents’ health insurance.
11. It creates an interim licensure level for mental health counselors, allowing them to be reimbursed by payers for their services while logging supervised practice hours toward full licensure. Counselors with the interim licensure are also eligible for state and federal grant and loan forgiveness programs.