3.0.0 1832 2021-09-29T22:19:22Z 2023-01-14T21:13:49Z Senate S S 2003-11-06 108 Senator Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act of 2003 108 486 S 2003-02-27 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. (text of measure as introduced: CR S2972-2973) Related bill CRS 2004-05-19 Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S5730, S5731, S5732-5733) IntroReferral B00100 9 Library of Congress 2003-11-07 Senate Read the second time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 382. Calendars 2003-11-06 Senate Introduced in the Senate. Read the first time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under Read the First Time. Calendars 2003-11-06 Introduced in Senate IntroReferral 10000 9 Library of Congress D000064 Sen. Daschle, Thomas A. [D-SD] THOMAS DASCHLE D SD ANDREW N Health Access to health care Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues Coinsurance Commemorations Commerce Congress Congressional reporting requirements Congressional tributes Discrimination in insurance Discrimination in medical care Employee health benefits Ex-Members of Congress Government Operations and Politics Governmental investigations Health insurance Health maintenance organizations Health services administration Insurance premiums Labor and Employment Managed care Medical economics Mental health services Names Quality of care Senate Small business Health 00 2003-11-06 Introduced in Senate 2004-05-07T21:35:24Z Senator Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act of 2003 - Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 and the Public Health Service Act to prohibit certain employee group health plans or related insurances providing both medical-surgical and mental health benefits from imposing mental health treatment limitations or financial requirements unless comparable limitations and requirements are imposed upon medical-surgical benefits. States that the foregoing shall not be construed as requiring a group health plan (or related insurance) to: (1) provide any mental health benefits; (2) prevent the medical management of mental health benefits; or (3) require the provision of specific mental health services, except to the extent that failure to provide such services would result in a disparity between the coverage of mental health and medical-surgical benefits.

Exempts specified small employers from such requirements.

Requires that, in the case of a group health plan that offers a participant or beneficiary two or more benefit package options, the coverage requirements shall be applied separately with respect to each such option.

Provides that, in the case of a plan or insurance providing in-network mental health benefits, out-of-network mental health benefits need not be provided at parity to medical-surgical benefits, as long as in-network mental health benefits are provided at parity with medical-surgical benefits and the plan or insurance provides reasonable access to in-network providers and facilities.

Requires a General Accounting Office study of such requirements' effects upon health insurance costs, access, and quality and a cost estimation of extending such requirements to the treatment of substance abuse and chemical dependency.]]>

Senator Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act of 2003 Short Titles as Introduced Senator Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act of 2003 Display Title Senator Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act of 2003 Official Title as Introduced A bill entitled "The Senator Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act of 2003". Placed on Calendar Senate 2003-11-07T05:00:00Z 2004-05-19 Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S5730, S5731, S5732-5733) text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain. Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress This file contains bill summaries and statuses for federal legislation. A bill summary describes the most significant provisions of a piece of legislation and details the effects the legislative text may have on current law and federal programs. Bill summaries are authored by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress. As stated in Public Law 91-510 (2 USC 166 (d)(6)), one of the duties of CRS is "to prepare summaries and digests of bills and resolutions of a public general nature introduced in the Senate or House of Representatives". For more information, refer to the User Guide that accompanies this file.