The need for mental health care and substance use disorder treatment has increased over the past two decades. Studies have shown that the effects of COVID and the increased use of social media has exacerbated this need.
Most Americans recognize the importance of mental health and substance use services, and this has led to a dramatic reduction in the negative stereotypes associated with needing such care. It’s okay to ask for – and receive – help.
In cases where mid-sized and large employers choose to offer health coverage to their employees, current law does not require these employers to offer mental health and substance use disorder benefits. In most cases, however, employers choose to voluntarily offer mental health and substance use disorder benefits and services. Why? Because they want to do right by their employees and their family members and they – like most Americans – understand how important it is for people to have access to mental health care and substance use disorder care.
To this end, employer spending on mental health care benefits has jumped 53% between 2020 and 2022. Employers continue to work hard to increase the number of mental health care providers in their networks, while also heavily investing in behavioral health services. However, employers have run head-first into the lack of qualified mental health care providers that are willing to participate in the employer plan’s network. In addition, health care worker shortages and burn-out makes this problem worse.
Employers have stemmed this problem by offering access to mental health and substance use disorder benefits through telehealth services. Telehealth enables employees and their families to obtain the care they need, when and where they need it, in an affordable and convenient manner. It reduces the need to leave home or work and risk infection at a physician’s office, provides a solution for individuals with limited mobility or access to transportation, and has the potential to address provider shortages and improve choice and competition in health care.
According to a Mercer study, data suggests that access to telehealth is likely the single biggest reason that more people have been able to access mental and behavioral health support. Based on this proven success, the Biden Administration should work with Congress to permanently expand access to telehealth and remote care services that was granted during the COVID pandemic.
The Biden Administration must also refrain from imposing unworkable requirements and mathematical tests through a recently proposed regulation, which I believe could lead to the unintended consequence of decreasing access to mental health and substance use disorder benefits.
I believe that we should also begin integrating primary and mental health care and investing in partnerships to bolster our mental health care workforce. By adjusting standard training for primary care physicians, these individuals would be better prepared to recognize, diagnose, and potentially treat mental health conditions. We must work together to find ways to incentivize medical school students to enter the mental health field and for professionals in the mental health field to stay in practice. This will require long-term commitments and partnerships among all stakeholders, both in the private- and public-sectors.
The bottom-line is this: If the Biden Administration wants to increase access to mental health and substance use disorder care – a goal that employers and insurance stakeholders share – the recently proposed rule is not the answer. The reality is that these unworkable requirements, if finalized, would have the opposite effect. Compliance costs and the cost of developing new systems would soar, requiring valuable resources and assets that could otherwise be used to improve coverage of, and access to, mental health and substance use disorder benefits to be re-allocated in inefficient and arbitrary ways. Employers and health plans are doing the right thing. Let’s help, not hinder them.
Christopher E. Condeluci is a health care policy lawyer and a former Tax and Benefits Counsel to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee during the development of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
