Data / Federal rules / 2024-20612
Requirements Related to the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act
The Health and Human Services Department published this final rule in the Federal Register on September 23, 2024. It took effect on November 22, 2024.
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What the agency says
This document sets forth final rules amending regulations implementing the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA) and adding new regulations implementing the nonquantitative treatment limitation (NQTL) comparative analyses requirements under MHPAEA, as amended by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA, 2021). Specifically, these final rules amend the existing NQTL standard to prohibit group health plans and health insurance issuers offering group or individual health insurance coverage from using NQTLs that place greater restrictions on access to mental health and substance use disorder benefits as compared to medical/surgical benefits. As part of these changes, these final rules require plans and issuers to collect and evaluate relevant data in a manner reasonably designed to assess the impact of NQTLs on relevant outcomes related to access to mental health and substance use disorder benefits and medical/surgical benefits and to take reasonable action, as necessary, to address material differences in access to mental health or substance use disorder benefits as compared to medical/surgical benefits. These final rules also amend existing examples and add new examples on the application of the rules for NQTLs to clarify and illustrate the requirements of MHPAEA. Additionally, these final rules set forth the content requirements for NQTL comparative analyses and specify how plans and issuers must make these comparative analyses available to the Department of the Treasury (Treasury), the Department of Labor (DOL), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) (collectively, the Departments), as well as to an applicable State authority, and to participants, beneficiaries, and enrollees. Finally, HHS finalizes regulatory amendments to implement the sunset provision for self-funded non-Federal governmental plan elections to opt out of compliance with MHPAEA, as adopted in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (CAA, 2023).
Key facts
- Document number
- 2024-20612
- Type
- Final rule
- Action
- Final rules
- Agency
- Treasury Department; Internal Revenue Service; Labor Department; Employee Benefits Security Administration; Health and Human Services Department
- Published
- September 23, 2024
- Takes effect
- November 22, 2024
- Dates
- Effective date: These regulations are effective on November 22, 2024.
- Docket
- TD 10006; CMS-9902-F
- Regulation ID (RIN)
- 0938-AU93; 1210-AC11; 1545-BQ29
- Code of Federal Regulations
- 26 CFR 54; 29 CFR 2590; 45 CFR 146; 45 CFR 147
- Topics
- Aged; Citizenship and naturalization; Civil rights; Employee benefit plans; Excise taxes; Health care; Health insurance; Individuals with disabilities; Intergovernmental relations; Pensions; Reporting and recordkeeping requirements; Sex discrimination
- Pages
- 166
Other documents from the Health and Human Services Department
Everything from the Health and Human Services Department · Rules on aged · Rules on citizenship and naturalization · Rules on civil rights · Published in September 2024
Read from the Federal Register API, last updated 2026-10-23. The document on federalregister.gov is the official record; dates and dockets can change through later corrections. Free to reuse with credit to SpecStream under CC BY 4.0.