title: Mental health parity compliance. Legal requirements and benefit design options.
abstract: Employers considering a response strategy to federal parity legislation may go as far as eliminating healthcare and mental health benefits altogether. Complying, however, could have higher payoff potential in performance results and in enhanced employee morale and relations. Reexamination of the value of behavioral health benefits should be considered in an organization's overall strategic plan. Our writer, a consultant to Wm. Mercer, Inc., defines plans which are potentially exempt from new mental health legislation, and examines the risks of "opting out," as well as the benefits of complying.
authors.affiliation: William M. Mercer Inc., San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Welds
mesh_terms: D003363:Cost Control; D006264:Health Benefit Plans, Employee / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D019458:Insurance Coverage / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D007358:Insurance, Psychiatric / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000191:economics*; D016134:Organizational Policy; D014481:United States