Mental Health Treatments Become Standard Benefit

Summary

---

If the problems are serious, the employee benefits program should respond with coverage and funding for mental health and substance abuse treatments up to the limits of other surgical and non-surgical treatment coverage -- thanks to the new Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008. But the new law also expands parity mandates to include equal limits for substance abuse disorders and other plan enhancements beginning in 2010. If an employer's employee benefits plan includes an employee assistance program (EAP), employees should have access to in-person and toll-free telephone-based counseling sessions and referrals to behavioral counseling, financial, legal and credit counseling and substance abuse treatments. The extent of the service varies by plan design and cost, but most EAPs provide a minimum of three brief counseling sessions and referrals to other services covered by health plans.

See the full content of this document

Extract

---

Mental Health Treatments Become Standard Benefit

You can feel the tension building and the anxiety mounting. Lots of closed door meetings and too-long coffee breaks. The scent of alcohol on someone's breath-even before lunch.

Feeling that times are getting a little unbearable, employees may take a "mental health day" here and there. But sometimes the feelings get worse and turn into serious depression, subst...

See the full content of this document

---