Below is the relevant legislation related to parity that has been introduced during the current or recently adjourned legislative session. State parity legislation passed in any state since 2008 is usually designed to increase compliance with the federal law and to strengthen state laws.

Are we missing any passed or introduced legislation? Let us know at info@paritytrack.org.

Introduced Legislation

Regular Session In Recess
Governor's Deadline 6/6/2019

2019

Primary Focus Medical Management Limitations; Mandated benefit: Other; Enforcement: Reporting Requirement
Title/Description Omnibus Health and Human Services appropriation bill
Citation SF 12
Introduced 5/24/2019
Sponsor Sen. Benson (R) and Abeler (R)
Status Signed into Law
Summary

The bill prohibits individual and group health insurance policies from applying NQTLs on MH/SUD benefits that are not also equitably applied to med/surgical benefits. Additionally, the bill requires mental health therapy visits and medication maintenance visits to be considered primary care visits for the purpose of cost-sharing requirements. The bill also requires the Commissioner of Commerce with the Commissioner of Health to submit a report to the legislature detailing parity overview and enforcement activities. Such report must be written in nontechnical, readily understandable language and must be made available to the public

Primary Focus Mandated Benefit
Title/Description Mental health; cost-sharing requirements for first four outpatient visits limited
Citation HF 109
Citation SF 184
Introduced 1/17/2019
Sponsor Reps. Edelson (DFL); Hassan (DFL); Lippert (DFL); Richardson (DFL); Mann (DFL); Cantrell (DFL); Moller (DFL); Christensen (DFL); Becker-Finn (DFL); Bahner (DFL); Huot (DFL)/ Sens. Bigham (DFL); Jensen (R); Abeler (R); Eaton (DFL); Kent (DFL)
Status Pending
Summary This bill amends Minnesota Statutes 2019 section 62Q.47 to prohibit cost-sharing requirements for the first four outpatient mental health services visits that occur within a contract year. Cost sharing requirements include deductibles, coinsurance, and co-payments.

Primary Focus Parity: General; Enforcement: Reporting Requirement; Compliance: Reporting Requirement
Title/Description Mental health benefits and other medical benefits parity required, mental health and substance use disorder defined, health plan transparency required, and commissioners of health and commerce accountability required
Citation HF 254/ SF 379
Introduced 1/22/2019
Sponsor Cantrell (DFL); Halverson (DFL); Mann (DFL); Hornstein (DFL); Davnie (DFL); Sanfell (DFL); Xiong (DFL); Xiong (DFL); Sundin (DFL); Loeffler (DFL); Edelson (DFL); Lien (DFL); Wolgamott (DFL); Gomez (DFL); Morrison (DFL); Beck-Finn (DFL); Moran (DFL); Howard (DFL); Long (DFL); Noor (DFL); Huot (DFL)/ Sen. Bigham (DFL)
Status Pending
Summary

This bill amends Minnesota Statutes 2018, section 62Q.47 to prohibit the application of NQTLs upon mental health and substance use disorder benefits in any manner than is incomparable to the application of such on medical and surgical benefits. The bill requires insurers who offer mental health and substance use disorder benefits to submit to the Commissioner of Commerce a report that demonstrates compliance with parity requirements using specified guidelines. Additionally, the bill requires the Commissioner to implement and enforce the Federal Parity Law, its implementing regulations, and relevant state requirements. The Commissioner with the Commissioner of Health must submit a report to the legislature detailing enforcement activities. Such report must be made be posted to a publically available website.  Furthermore, the bill amends Section 62Q.01 to define “Classification of benefits,” “Mental health conditions and substance use disorders,” and “Nonquantitative treatment limitations or NQTLs.”

2017

HF 1974
Senate Bill SF 2028
Introduced 3/2017
Sponsor Reps. Albright, Hoppe, Slocum, Halverson, Bly, and Sens. Utke, Latz, Abeler, Isaacson, and Lourey
Status Dead
Summary
This bill tries to change the sections of state law relevant to parity in many ways. This bill will do the following:

2015

HF 1630
Senate Bill SF 1592
Introduced 3/2015
Sponsor Rep. Zerwas and Sen. Clausen
Status Dead 3/2015
Summary

This bill seeks to change a section of the state insurance law about utilization review . It would change a the law so that a peer of a patient’s provider is required to review any denials of inpatient behavioral health services made by a utilization review organization. Previously this had only been required for denials of outpatient services.
The bill would also require a psychiatrist certified in child and adolescent psychiatry to review any denials of behavioral health services a utilization review organization makes about anyone under 18.

HF 3290
Introduced 3/2015
Sponsor Rep. Norton
Status Dead 3/2016
Summary This bill amended the section of the state insurance law about essential health benefit requirements to require plans cover rehabilitative and habilitative services for autism spectrum disorder treatment.
SF 1187
Introduced 2/2015
Sponsor Sen. Clausen
Status Dead 2/2015
Summary
This bill seeks to change the state insurance law so that mental health services provided by a clinical trainee will be covered by insurance plans. It also seeks to change the law so that any time an insurance plan denies mental health services for a consumer, the denial must be made by or under the supervision of a licensed mental health professional.
HF1062/SF717
Introduced 2/2015
Sponsor Rep. Albright and Sen. Eaton
Status Dead 3/2015
Summary Among other things, this bill seeks to change a section of the state insurance law so that mental health crisis services are considered emergency services. It would also add mental health crisis services to the state’s essential health benefits. This bill was later incorporated into HF 1638/SF 1458.
HF 1060/SF7934
Introduced 2/2015
Sponsor Rep. Albright and Sen. Franzon
Status Dead 3/2015
Summary

This bill seeks to change the requirements for utilization review reporting. Among other things, the bill requires utilization review organizations to submit an annual report with the following information:

  • The number of requests, by drug;
  • The number of requests approved, by drug
  • The number of appeals, by drug
  • The number of appeals approved, by drug
  • The number of appeals denied, by drug
  • For standard review, the average time from receipt of request to notification of decision
  • For expedited reviews, the average time from receipt of request to notification of decision
  • For standard appeals, the average time from receipt of request to notification of decision
  • The ten most frequently reviewed services

The bill also requires health plans to make available formularies used in the determination of prescription drug benefits. While this bill is not specific to behavioral health coverage, the information utilization review organizations must submit may highlight potential parity violations.

HF863/SF605
Introduced 2/2015
Sponsor Rep. Franson and Sen. Clausen
Status Dead 2/2015
Summary

This bill seeks to change state insurance law about coverage for autism treatment. The bill would change the law so that it would apply to all insurance plans. Currently it only applies to large employer plans . It would also make minor changes in the wording of the bill to increase clarity. For instance, “children under 18 with autism spectrum disorders” would be changed to “a child under age 18 with an autism spectrum disorder.”

HF836/SF392
Introduced 1/2015
Sponsor Rep. Franson and Sen. Clausen
Status Dead 3/2015
Summary

This bill attempts to change a section of state law related to essential health benefits . It orders the Minnesota Department of Commerce to ask the United States Department of Health and Human Services to include autism services in the state’s essential health benefits for 2016. This part of the law already existed, but it pushed the effective date back from 12/31/2014 to 7/1/2015.

SF63
Introduced 1/2015
Sponsor Rep. Mack and Sen. Eken
Status Dead 4/2015
Summary

This bill intended to extend Medicaid reimbursement for psychiatric consultation to include licensed independent clinical social workers. Prior to this bill, eligible providers include psychiatrists, psychologists, and advanced practice registered nurses certified in psychiatric mental health. This bill was later incorporated into HF 1638/SF 1458.

2013-2014

SF761
Introduced 2/2013
Sponsor Rep. Huntley and Sen. Lourey
Status Dead 4/2013
Summary

Among many other things, this comprehensive bill tried to change the state insurance law about behavioral health coverage. The changes it proposed were the exact same as what are found in HF779/SF662, which did become law. Please read the summary for that bill in the section above about legislation signed into law for 2013-2014.

SF1646
Introduced 5/2013
Sponsor Rep. Dorholt and Sen. Hoffman
Status Dead 5/2013
Summary

This bill tried to change the state social welfare law so that Medicaid would cover consultation with any mental health professional, not just a psychiatrist.

SF373
Summary

This bill tried to change the state social welfare law so that Medicaid would cover consultation with any mental health professional, not just a psychiatrist. HF1233/SF1034 from the same legislative session had the same requirement. HF 1233/SF 1034 was signed into law (summarized above in “Legislation Signed into Law”).

SF829
Introduced 2/2013
Sponsor Rep. Abeler and Sen. Hoffman
Dead 3/2013
Summary This bill tried to change the state social welfare law so that Medicaid would cover mental health services provided in a school by a licensed counselor.
SF314
Introduced 1/2013
Sponsor Rep. Norton and Sen. Eaton
Summary

This bill was added into HF1233/SF1034, which is listed above in the 2013-2014 “Legislation Signed Into Law” section. This bill amended the state insurance law to add the section that requires insurance plans to cover services for autism. A summary of this section of the state insurance law can be found at the bottom of the page.

SF2837
Introduced 3/2014
Sponsor Rep. Norton and Sen. Clausen
Status Dead 3/2014
Summary

This bill tried to change the state insurance law so that all insurance plans would be required to cover services for autism instead of just large employer plans. It also would have strengthened language regarding how medically necessary care is defined. The bill also tried to change the state law regarding Medicaid in several ways. Treatment reviews would be restricted to once every 12 months instead of once every 6 months and two different provisions would allow for continuation of treatment even if progress is not being made. The bill also would have required the Minnesota Comprehensive Health Association to continue beyond 12/31/2014 exclusively for the treatment of autism until autism coverage became an essential health benefit under the Affordable Care Act.

2011-2012

SF858
Introduced 3/2011
Sponsor Rep. Gruenhagen and Sen. Hahn
Status Dead 3/2011
Summary This bill would have repealed the sections of the state insurance law about behavioral health coverage and added a section stating that insurance plans would have to comply with federal health insurance laws.
SF1186
Introduced 4/2011
Sponsor Rep. Norton and Sen. Marty
Status Dead 2/2012
Summary This bill tried to change the state social welfare law so that Medicaid would cover consultation with a psychologist, not just a psychiatrist. This bill is identical to HF438/SF831 from the 2009-2010 legislative session.
SF1020
Introduced 3/2011
Sponsor Rep. Norton and Sen. Higgins
Dead 3/2012
Summary

This bill tried to add autism coverage into the state insurance law. This is similar to the bill that was signed into law in the 2013-2014 legislative session. However, this bill was much more extensive and would have required insurance plans to cover more services for autism than they do now. A summary of the state’s law about autism can be found at the bottom of the page.

HF204
Introduced 1/2011
Sponsor Rep Norton
Status Dead 2/2011
Summary

This bill tried to add autism coverage into the state insurance law. This is similar to the bill that was signed into law in the 2013-2014 legislative session. This version does not have a section saying that it doesn’t apply to state health care programs. A summary of the state’s law about autism can be found at the bottom of this page.

2009-2010

SF545
Introduced 2/2009
Sponsor Rep. Thissen and Sen. Prettner Solon
Status Dead 4/2009
Summary This bill tried to change the state insurance law so that utilization reviews of mental health services must be made by a psychologist if the services are being provided by a psychologist.
SF831
Introduced 2/2009
Sponsor Rep. Ruud and Sen. Prettner Solon
Status Dead 3/2009
Summary

This bill tried to change the state social welfare law so that Medicaid would cover consultation with a psychologist, not just a psychiatrist. This bill is identical to HF1421/SF1186 from the 2011-2012 legislative session.

SF1470
Introduced 3/2009
Sponsor Rep. Bigham and Sen. Sieban
Status Dead 3/2009
Summary

This bill tried to add autism coverage into the state insurance law. This is similar to the bill that was signed into law in the 2013-2014 legislative session. This bill does state that plans must cover services for autism up to age 25, which is not in the current law. This bill does not have a section exempting state healthcare programs. A summary of the state’s law about autism can be found at the bottom of this page.

HF234
Introduced 1/2009
Sponsor Rep. Slawik
Status Dead 1/2009
Summary This bill tried to add autism coverage into the state insurance law. This is similar to the bill that was signed into law in the 2013-2014 legislative session. This version does not have a section exempting state healthcare programs. A summary of the state’s law about autism can be found at the bottom of this page.
SF312
Introduced 1/2009
Sponsor Rep. Norton and Sen. Scheid
Status Dead 4/2009
Summary This bill tried to add autism coverage into the state insurance law. This is similar to the bill that was signed into law in the 2013-2014 legislative session. This version does not have a section saying that it doesn’t apply to state healthcare programs. A summary of the state’s law about autism can be found at the bottom of this page.

National Parity Map

View the state parity reports to learn about legislation, regulation, and litigation related to parity implementation

National Parity Map

Get Support

Common Violations

In seeking care or services, be aware of the common ways parity rights can be violated.