Note: Highlights facility-related adverse determinations or denials.
[Insert Date]
[If URGENT, then indicate URGENT APPEAL] [Insert Name]
[Insert Company Name/Plan] [Insert Address]
Re: [Insert Patient’s Name] [Insert Patient’s Date of Birth]
[Insert Patient’s Insurance ID Number] [Insert Patient’s Group ID Number]
[Insert Disputed Service, provider of service, and dates of disputed coverage] Dear [Name of contact at health insurance plan]:
I have been a member of your plan since [date] and am now writing to appeal your decision to deny coverage for [state the name of the specific treatment or service denied AND if it is urgently needed to prevent harm or the inability to regain maximal function]. It is my understanding based on your letter dated [insert date of denial] that this [treatment or service] has been denied because: [Quote the specific reason given in the denial letter].
I have enclosed a letter from [name of clinician] explaining why [he/she] recommends [treatment or service], [his/her] qualifications. I have also attached a rationale for why I am entitled to this service under the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA). [If the treatment is urgent, then the treating professional should indicate so in the attached letter.]
I also hereby request that you: 1) provide me with a copy of the SBC and/or SPD and complete benefit plan booklet for both the medical/surgical and mental health/substance use disorder benefits within 30 days; 2) explain the specific plan provisions you are relying upon to exclude coverage for this facility type and the services they provide; 3) provide me with plan documents under which the plan is established or operated, with information on the processes, strategies, evidentiary standards and other factors used to exclude coverage for [freestanding or residential treatment facilities] under the behavioral health benefit; and 4) explain how that is comparable to and applied no more stringently than coverage or non-coverage for similar provider types under the medical/surgical benefit. Should you require additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me at [phone number]. I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.
Sincerely,
[Insert your name]
Cc: [insert patient’s name]
[insert State Insurance Commissioner’s Name] [insert your Member of Congress’ name] Enclosure: Parity Implementation Coalition Analysis
Parity Resource Guide for Addiction & Mental Health Consumers, Providers & Advocates
72
Appendix B: Model Appeals Letters
The Parity Implementation Coalition has adopted the following position statement with respect to any covered mental health and substance use disorders with blanket exclusions of certain provider or facility types (e.g., freestanding or residential treatment facilities).
* * *
Foundationally, the Affordable Care Act, Section 2706 provides that non-grandfathered group health plans may not discriminate against “any health care provider who is acting within the scope of that provider’s license or certification under applicable State law.” This includes duly licensed freestanding and/or residential treatment facilities.
In addition, and far more specifically, with respect to both grandfathered and non-grandfathered plans, the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (“Federal Parity Act”)2 requires, without exception:
In the case of a group health plan or a health insurance issuer offering group or individual health insurance coverage that provides both medical and surgical benefits and mental health or substance use disorder benefits, such plan or coverage shall ensure that . . . (ii) the treatment limitations applicable to such mental health or substance use disorder benefits are no more restrictive than the predominant treatment limitations applied to substantially all medical and surgical benefits covered by the plan (or coverage) and there are no separate treatment limitations that are applicable only with respect to mental health or substance use disorder benefits.
The statute defines “treatment limitations” as “limits on the frequency of treatment, number of visits, days of coverage or other similar limits on the scope or duration of treatment.” The regulations implementing the Federal Parity Act reinforce that treatment limitations can be either quantitative (i.e. numeric) or non-quantitative (i.e. non-numeric). The regulations permit only six benefits classifications for purposes of applying the parity requirements: (1) inpatient, in-network; (2) inpatient,
out-of-network; (3) outpatient, in-network; (4) outpatient, out-of-network; (5) emergency care; and (6) prescription drugs.
The Interim Final Regulations provide that “if a plan provides benefits for a mental health condition or substance use disorder in one or more classifications but excludes benefits for that condition or
2 The Federal Parity Act was enacted as a set of parallel amendments to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”), the Public Health Service Act, and the Internal Revenue Code. 75 Fed. Reg. 5411. Accordingly, the federal agencies charged with implementing the Parity Act are the Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of the Treasury (collectively, the “Departments”). After the Parity Act was passed, the Departments jointly issued a Request for Information soliciting comments on what regulations would be required. 74 Fed. Reg. 19155 (Apr. 28, 2009). The Departments later jointly issued Interim Final Regulations (“IFRs”) on February 2, 2010, see 75 Fed. Reg. 5410 et seq., and Final Regulations on November 13, 2013. See 78 Fed. Reg. 68240 et seq.
disorder in a classification in which it provides medical/surgical benefits, the exclusion of benefits in that classification for a mental health condition or substance use disorder otherwise covered under the plan is a treatment limitation.” The Final Regulations underscore that the Federal Parity Act “specifically prohibits separate treatment limitations that are applicable only with respect to mental health or substance use disorder benefits.” The Final Regulations expressly illustrate that coverage limits based on “facility type” are non-quantitative.
When a plan excludes medically necessary services (i.e. facility type) for covered mental health or substance use disorders based on provider or facility-type, but offers medically necessary treatment services for comparable provider or facility-types for medical/surgical conditions within the same classification, it improperly imposes treatment limitations (i.e. exclusions of facility type) that are not comparable to and applied more stringently than the treatment limitations imposed under the medical and surgical benefits within a classification, and moreover, is applying separate treatment limitations “only” with respect to mental health or substance use disorder benefits. The following example of the impermissible nature of these types of exclusions is set forth in the Final Regulations:
Facts. A plan generally covers medically appropriate treatments. The plan automatically excludes coverage for inpatient substance use disorder treatment in any setting outside of a hospital (such as a freestanding or residential treatment center). For inpatient treatment outside of a hospital for other conditions (including freestanding or residential treatment centers prescribed for mental health conditions, as well as for medical/surgical conditions), the plan will provide coverage if the prescribing physician obtains authorization from the plan that the inpatient treatment is medically appropriate for the individual, based on clinically appropriate standards of care.
Conclusion. Although the same nonquantitative treatment limitation—medical appropriateness—is applied to both mental health and substance use disorder benefits and medical/surgical benefits, the plan’s unconditional exclusion of substance use disorder treatment in any setting outside of a hospital is not comparable to the conditional exclusion of inpatient treatment outside of a hospital for other conditions.
Since the net result of facility-type exclusions is zero (0) days of coverage for medically appropriate treatment, the limitation also violates the prohibition on disparate quantitative limits. This is because the limitation is “more restrictive” than the “predominant limitations on “substantially all” the
medical/surgical benefits in the classification. Thus, a plan that covers skilled nursing facilities, physical rehabilitation facilities, home health services or other non-hospital medical/surgical levels of care, while categorically excluding coverage for non-hospital facilities, such as freestanding or residential treatment centers for mental health or substance use disorders, violates both the quantitative and non-quantitative treatment limitations rules of the Federal Parity Act.
Parity Resource Guide for Addiction & Mental Health Consumers, Providers & Advocates
74
Appendix B: Model Appeals Letters