Defending (and Defeating) Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act Claims

This CLE webinar will provide guidance on how to successfully litigate and defend claims under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (“MHPAEA”). The panel will discuss the requirements of MHPAEA for group health plans, recent litigation and DOL enforcement actions involving the MHPAEA and the regulatory “Non-Quantitative Treatment Limitations (“NQTL”), disclosure requirements, and best practices and tactics for litigating MHPAEA claims.

The MHPAEA has become a regular presence in both class actions and participant lawsuits involving mental health or substance abuse benefits available under group health plans. The DOL also is aggressively auditing group health plans (and the third parties that administer them) to ensure compliance with the MHPAEA. Health plan administrators and insurers regularly face ERISA administrative claims for group health plan benefits that assert MHPAEA claims, the complexity and novelty of which often challenge existing procedures for reviewing these sorts of claims. State statutory analogues to the MHPAEA, along with traditional ERISA litigation principles, add additional complexity to these disputes.

Listen as experienced ERISA litigators Andrew Holly and Nicholas Pappas provide background on the MHPAEA, as well as the complex NQTL found in the DOL’s MHPAEA regulations. They will describe case decisions interpreting the MHPAEA and its regulations. And they will provide advice for plan sponsors, third party administrators, and insurers on how to successfully defend against MHPAEA claims in litigation, during DOL audits, and at the administrative stage.