Bill Details
HR.957 - 119th Congress
Status
Latest action
2025-02-04 - Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce.
Introduced Date
2025-02-04
Policy Area
Health
Committees
View committees (1)
Cosponsors
8
0
0
AI Summary This summary was generated by AI from the bill text. AI can get information wrong.
This bill would add new financial penalties for health plans and insurers that do not follow mental health parity rules. In simple terms, it gives the government another tool to punish plans that treat mental health or substance use disorder coverage worse than other medical coverage when the law says they should be equal. It also updates existing penalty rules so they cover not just plan sponsors, but also service providers, plan administrators, and insurance issuers connected to the plan.
- It creates civil monetary penalties for violations of mental health and substance use disorder parity requirements.
- It changes existing ERISA penalty rules so they apply to failures related to mental health parity, in addition to the current rules on genetic information.
- It broadens who can be fined by including plan sponsors, service providers, plan administrators, and issuers tied to group health plans.
- The new rules would apply to plan years that begin one year after the bill becomes law.
Official Summaries
No summaries available
Current Full Text
[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 957 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 957
To provide for civil monetary penalties for violations of mental health
parity requirements.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 4, 2025
Mr. Norcross (for himself, Mr. Fitzpatrick, Mr. Courtney, Mr. Pocan,
and Mr. Johnson of Georgia) introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To provide for civil monetary penalties for violations of mental health
parity requirements.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Parity Enforcement Act of 2025''.
SEC. 2. CIVIL MONETARY PENALTIES FOR PARITY VIOLATIONS.
(a) Civil Monetary Penalties Relating to Parity in Mental Health
and Substance Use Disorders.--Section 502(c)(10) of the Employee
Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 1132(c)(10)(A)) is
amended--
(1) in the heading, by striking ``use of genetic
information'' and inserting ``use of genetic information and
parity in mental health and substance use disorder benefits'';
and
(2) in subparagraph (A)--
(A) by striking ``any plan sponsor of a group
health plan'' and inserting ``any plan sponsor, service
provider, or plan administrator of a group health
plan''; and
(B) by striking ``for any failure'' and all that
follows through ``in connection with the plan.'' and
inserting ``for any failure by such sponsor, service
provider, administrator, or issuer, in connection with
the plan--
``(i) to meet the requirements of
subsection (a)(1)(F), (b)(3), (c), or (d) of
section 702 or section 701 or 702(b)(1) with
respect to genetic information; or
``(ii) to meet the requirements of
subsection (a) of section 712 with respect to
parity in mental health and substance use
disorder benefits.''.
(b) Exception to the General Prohibition on Enforcement.--Section
502 of such Act (29 U.S.C. 1132) is amended--
(1) in subsection (a)(6), by striking ``or (9)'' and
inserting ``(9), or (10)''; and
(2) in subsection (b)(3)--
(A) by striking ``subsections (c)(9) and (a)(6)''
and inserting ``subsections (c)(9), (c)(10), and
(a)(6)''; and
(B) by striking ``under subsection (c)(9))'' and
inserting ``under subsections (c)(9) and (c)(10)), and
except with respect to enforcement by the Secretary of
section 712''.
(c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection (a) shall
apply with respect to group health plans, or any health insurance
issuer offering health insurance coverage in connection with such plan,
for plan years beginning after the date that is 1 year after the date
of enactment of this Act.
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