In an effort to make advocacy easy and accessible to all of our members, the Advocacy Committee Chair will be providing you all with a monthly call to action. This is a meaningful and impactful way for you to stay involved and advocate for important topics surrounding clinical social work in California.

Update on Mental Health Parity Rules (from CSWA)

Please read this update regarding the current state of Mental Health Parity Rules: https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/ebsa/ebsa20240909

The basic premise is that mental health treatment and substance use treatment be covered as fully as medical/surgical treatment. The primary areas where this applies include inpatient in-network; inpatient out-of-network; outpatient in-network; outpatient out-of-network; emergency; and prescription drugs. The problems in applying these reasonable standards is that there is no formula for what they should actually be, and reimbursement is not included in the areas that must be at parity for mental health treatment.

While any attempt to get insurers to cover mental health and substance use is worthwhile, until real enforcement is built into the rules – which is still not the case in the new rules – there will likely be little change to the ways that insurers currently limit coverage of mental health treatment.

Note that these new rules will go into effect in phases, with some being enacted in 2025 and some in 2026.

Reach out to the advocacy committee chair for additional guidance and support

Veronica Yakovenko, LCSW  
Advocacy Chair CSCSW vytherapist@gmail.com