Medicare mental health parity: a high potential change that is long overdue

Laysha Ostrow1, Ronald Manderscheid

  • 1Human Services Research Institute, 2336 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02140, USA. lostrow@hsri.org

Recent changes in legislation regarding mental health parity in Medicare will revolutionize payment for mental health care and delivery systems. This commentary discusses why this policy change was essential to promote adequate care for populations served by Medicare and to address expected changes in beneficiary, provider, and plan behavior as more equitable payments by Medicare are implemented.

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