Kent Sullivan
Insurance Commissioner

Almost one in five adults experiences a mental health illness each year, but fewer than half receive treatment. Can better enforcement of mental health parity laws help us improve those statistics? It’s time to find out.

If a health insurance plan covers mental health issues, state and federal laws require it to give the same level of benefits, such as the number of office visits or access to emergency care, as it does for a physical illness or injury. This is known as mental health parity. The concept is simple. But ensuring parity among different medical specialties can be difficult.

The Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) is exploring ways to better evaluate parity and identify treatment limitations within health plans. As part of this effort, we’ve met with stakeholders and asked for broad input to identify best practices to enforce mental health parity.

We’ve talked to leaders in the mental health field and patient advocates. They tell us that many mental health patients don’t know their health insurance may cover their treatment, and providers may still face barriers getting medically necessary services approved or adequately reimbursed. Even more troubling, advocates tell us that it can be difficult to get providers or patients to file a complaint if they have a problem. That silence creates an additional barrier to parity.

It’s essential that mental health providers, patients, and advocates share information with TDI. It helps us identify and quantify problems so we can take action. You can file a complaint online, call our Help Line at 1-800-252-3439 to learn about your options, or review our How to get help with a mental health issue webpage. You can also share your thoughts and experiences by emailing commissioner@tdi.texas.gov.

A survey by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that only 43% of adults experiencing mental illness received treatment in 2018. Let’s change that.