§ 26-20-701 — Required parity for mental health and substance use disorder insurance

(a) All individual or group health insurance policies
providing coverage on an expense incurred basis, individual and
group service or indemnity type health insurance contracts
issued by any insurer, including any nonprofit corporation and
individual and group service contracts issued by a health
maintenance organization, shall meet the requirements of, and
the commissioner may enforce subject to the provisions of this
section, the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of
2008, 42 U.S.C. § 300gg-26, as amended, and the regulations
promulgated pursuant thereto as of January 1, 2018. Persons
exempt from complying with the Mental Health Parity and
Addiction Equity Act shall not be exempted from complying with
the requirements of this section if this section otherwise
applies to the person. The commissioner may promulgate
reasonable rules which establish exemptions from the application
of this section.
(b) No policy or contract providing mental health or
substance use coverage to which subsection (a) of this section
applies shall:
(i) Deny coverage for mental health or substance use
services delivered using remote audio or audio-visual delivery
systems to a person not physically present with the delivering
health care provider if coverage would be provided for the same
services when delivered in person;
(ii) Charge a copayment, deductible or coinsurance
amount to a person receiving mental health or substance use
services through remote audio or audio-visual delivery systems
that is higher than the copayment, deductible or coinsurance
amount charged for the same services when delivered in person;
(iii) Reduce any payment or reimbursement provided to
a health care provider using remote audio or audio-visual
delivery systems for the provision of mental health or substance
use services to an amount that is less than the payment or
reimbursement that would be made to a health care provider
rendering those services in person.