Academy Examines Ways to Bring Parity to Mental Health

By Matthew Williams 
Policy Project Manager, Health 

(05/27/25)

For more than 75 years, May has marked the commemoration of Mental Health Awareness Month, which focuses on the vital role mental health plays in our overall well-being. It also serves as an opportunity to provide resources and information to support the more than one in five U.S. adults who have experienced mental health illness. Mental and behavioral health is a priority policy issue for the Academy’s Health Practice Council (HPC), as access, affordability, and outcomes within mental health have direct and indirect actuarial implications. 

Mental health awareness continues to be bipartisan issue across state and the federal government. Within the state regulatory world, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) (B) Working Group has taken a leadership role in the policy space, regularly coordinating best practices among the states, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).  

The Academy’s Behavioral Health Task Force (BHTF), formed in 2023, works closely with the Health Equity Committee (HEC). Working together, the two volunteer groups reflect the overlap between the public policy discussions around health equity’s impact on overall health and the specific implications equity has on access and affordability in the behavioral health and substance use disorder space. 

At the Academy’s 2024 annual meeting last October, the HPC hosted the breakout session, “Broadening the Focus: Incorporating Indirect Costs/Savings and Non-Financial Outcomes in Actuarial Analysis.” It focused on how adding or enhancing benefits, along with other indirect costs and non-financial considerations, may impact health spending and outcomes through a health equity perspective.  

The HEC is continuing this conversation, hosting a series of interviews and focus groups over the next few months. It plans to develop a holistic principles-based resource that actuaries and other stakeholders can use when making health benefit plan changes that may lead to more efficient use of health care resources.     

The BHTF is developing an issue brief on the current state of mental health care access and demand, focused on behavioral health care coverage, whether offered as a standalone service, a separate service, or integrated holistically into a consumer’s health plan (e.g., integration of behavioral health services into primary care).   

The Academy’s website and new Policy Forum will continue to highlight the work and focus of the HPC in this space, so check back for more.