Mental health care may be harder to obtain after HHS rule reversal- Trigger warning! This discusses suicide and overdose

[Silent Type]

6. Unfortunately, the rule wasn't scheduled to start until 1/1/2025. Not sure why it took 16 years after enactment of law

to come out with a clarifying rule, although that’s all too typical of Medicare policy evolution.

And, the real guts of the policy was scheduled to start until 2026– “However, the meaningful benefits standard, the prohibition on discriminatory factors and evidentiary standards, the relevant data evaluation requirements, and the related requirements in the provisions for comparative analyses apply on the first day of the first plan year beginning on or after January 1, 2026.”

Fortunately, there is the 2008 law that is still in place, at least for now.

Prior to 2008, Medicare covered only 50% of most mental health services. Other insurers did the same. That does not appear to be involved in the review of the recent policy.