The Ohio Department of Insurance is debuting it’s new Mental Health Parity Toolkit for consumers of insurance services. The toolkit includes a recently released report on mental health parity education and outreach, a link to parity-related FAQs, and a health benefits comparison tool.
Background
Ohio's enacted state budget for 2018-2019, requires the Superintendent of Insurance, in consultation with the Director of Mental Health and Addiction Services, to develop consumer education on mental health and addiction services insurance parity, including establishing a consumer hotline to collect information and help consumers understand their insurance benefits.
The act also requires the departments to jointly report annually on their efforts. The report must include information on the departments' consumer and payer outreach activities and identify trends and barriers to access and coverage in Ohio. The budget requires both departments to jointly report on their efforts under the program, annually before each Jan. 30, to the General Assembly, Joint Medicaid Oversight Committee and Governor.