Does requirement to exhaust counseling sessions under EAP comply with mental health parity rules?


Issue:

An employer maintains both a major medical plan and an employee assistance program (EAP). The EAP provides, among other benefits, a limited number of mental health or substance use disorder counseling sessions. Participants are eligible for mental health or substance use disorder benefits under the major medical plan only after exhausting the counseling sessions provided by the EAP. No similar exhaustion requirement applies with respect to medical/surgical benefits provided under the major medical plan. Is this requirement permissible under the mental health parity rules?

Answer:    

No. Limiting eligibility for mental health and substance use disorder benefits only after EAP benefits are exhausted is a nonquantitative treatment limitation subject to the mental health parity requirements. Because no comparable requirement applies to medical/surgical benefits, the requirement may not be applied to mental health or substance use disorder benefits.

Nonquantitative treatment limitations. A group health plan (or health insurance coverage) may not impose a nonquantitative treatment limitation (NQTL) with respect to mental health or substance use disorder benefits in any classification unless, under the terms of the plan (or health insurance coverage) as written and in operation, any processes, strategies, evidentiary standards, or other factors used in applying the NQTL to mental health or substance use disorder benefits in the classification are comparable to (and are applied no more stringently than) the processes, strategies, evidentiary standards, or other factors used in applying the limitation with respect to medical/surgical benefits in the classification.

Nonquantitative treatment limitations include:

  • medical management standards limiting or excluding benefits based on medical necessity or medical appropriateness, or based on whether the treatment is experimental or investigative;
  • formulary design for prescription drugs;
  • for plans with multiple network tiers (such as preferred providers and participating providers), network tier design;
  • standards for provider admission to participate in a network, including reimbursement rates;
  • plan methods for determining usual, customary, and reasonable charges;
  • refusal to pay for higher-cost therapies until it can be shown that a lower-cost therapy is not effective (also known as fail-first policies or step therapy protocols);
  • exclusions based on failure to complete a course of treatment; and
  • restrictions based on geographic location, facility type, provider specialty, and other criteria that limit the scope or duration of benefits for services provided under the plan or coverage.

Source: IRS Reg. §54.9812-1(c)(4)(iii), Example 6.

[ Return to top of document ]