US Congress House Bill 4276 (Prior Session Legislation)

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Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 12-0)
Status: Introduced on December 16 2015 - 25% progression, died in committee
Action: 2016-03-23 - Referred to the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions.
Pending: House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Committee
Text: Latest bill text (Introduced) [PDF]

Behavioral Health Coverage Transparency Act of 2015 This bill amends the Public Health Service Act, Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), and Internal Revenue Code to direct the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, and the Treasury to require group health plans and health insurers to disclose the analyses performed to ensure compliance of plans or coverage with the law and regulations. Disclosures must include findings and conclusions regarding whether nonquantitative treatment limitations (e.g., tiered benefits, step therapy, or preauthorization) applied to mental health or substance use disorder benefits are comparable to, and applied no more stringently than, such limitations on medical and surgical benefits. HHS, Labor, and Treasury must: (1) issue guidance on the process for current and potential participants and beneficiaries to file formal complaints of plans or insurers being in violation of the requirement for parity between mental health and substance use disorder benefits and medical and surgical benefits, (2) conduct audits of plans and insurers to determine compliance with parity requirements and publish information from those audits, and (3) publish information on denials of claims by plans and insurers for mental health and substance use disorder services compared to denials of claims for medical and surgical services. HHS must establish a consumer parity portal website that allows for submission of complaints and provides information to consumers on parity. The Government Accountability Office must report on HHS, Labor, and Treasury efforts to enforce parity.

Behavioral Health Coverage Transparency Act of 2015

Rep. Joseph Kennedy [D-MA]	Rep. Paul Tonko [D-NY]	Rep. Doris Matsui [D-CA]	Rep. Yvette Clarke [D-NY]
Rep. Kathy Castor [D-FL]	Rep. Don Beyer [D-VA]	Rep. Anna Eshoo [D-CA]	Sen. Ben Lujan [D-NM]
Rep. Eliot Engel [D-NY]	Rep. Lois Capps [D-CA]	Rep. Robert Brady [D-PA]	Rep. Janice Schakowsky [D-IL]

Date	Chamber	Action
2016-03-23	House	Referred to the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions.
2015-12-18	House	Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.
2015-12-16	House	Referred to House Ways and Means
2015-12-16	House	Referred to House Education and the Workforce
2015-12-16	House	Referred to House Energy and Commerce
2015-12-16	House	Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Education and the Workforce, and Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
2015-12-16	House	Introduced in House

HB4396 (Related) 2016-03-23 - Referred to the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions.
HB4435 (Related) 2016-02-10 - Referred to the Subcommittee on Indian, Insular and Alaska Native Affairs.
SB2562 (Related) 2016-02-22 - Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Type	Source
Summary	https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/4276/all-info
Text	https://www.congress.gov/114/bills/hr4276/BILLS-114hr4276ih.pdf