labor lawAdivision of labor law center

A law recently signed by President Bush will affect Virginia employee benefit plans.

Health benefits are a major issue for anyone seeking employment these days. The Mental Health Parity Act or the MHPA bill was originally signed into law in 1996. It included a sunset clause which allowed it to expire on September 31, 2001. The law has been extended five times since then, which extended the expiration date. Under this latest extension signed by the president, the MHPA is now extended through December 31, 2007,
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Today group health insurance plans cover more than 150 million people in the United States.
Under the MHPA, any group health insurance plans offered to employees must cover mental health treatments such as visits to a licensed therapist, psychologist or psychiatrist at the same rate as other treatments. They also include stays in mental hospitals or the mental health wing of a hospital for ailments as diverse as post-traumatic stress disorder or depression. Rehab for drug and alcohol abuse should also be covered.

Before the MHPA, it was common for many group health insurance plans to set generous limits on medical treatments and not so generous limits on mental health treatments.  For example, a limit of $90,000 or more per year for ordinary medical treatments, while giving mental health plans annual limits as low as $5,000 or $10,000 was acceptable. Under the current law, group health insurance plans must regard and fund mental health treatments just as they do any other treatments. 

The Employee Benefits Security Administration or EBSA was created to enforce the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. At that time the agency was known as the Pension and welfare Benefits Program. That name was changed to the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration in the beginning of 1986.  In 2003 the agency was upgraded to sub- cabinet level which is overseen by an Assistant Secretary of Labor.

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