HD47 - Insurance Coverage for Persons with Mental Disabilities

  • Published: 1990
  • Author: Mentally Handicapped
  • Enabling Authority: House Joint Resolution 319 (Regular Session, 1989)

Executive Summary:
In May 1989, as requested by House Joint Resolution 319, Howard M. Cullum, Commissioner, Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services, and Steven T. Foster, Commissioner, Bureau of Insurance, State Corporation Commission, convened a task force composed of service providers, the insurance industry, advocates for individuals with mental disabilities, and university teaching hospital representatives. Jointly they appointed Isabel Brenner, a member of the State Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services Board, as Chairman of the newly-formed Insurance Task Force. The task force held its first meeting in June and has met monthly since then.

To approach its charge, Task Force members divided into four groups to define the issues and develop recommendations for consideration by the larger group. As part of HJR 319, the task force was charged with coordinating its study with the SJR 169 Joint Subcommittee Studying Mandated Substance Abuse Treatment and Prevention Programs. For the past two years, the Joint Subcommittee has been working with a Substance Abuse Insurance Task Force comprising agency and industry representatives. This Task Force has been studying ways to provide adequate insurance coverage for substance abuse services. In addition, SJR 191 (1989) established a Joint Subcommittee to study certain practices among psychiatric professionals and institutions. All of these study committees are reviewing similar issues. Two Insurance Task Force members sit on these legislative study groups and have apprised the task force of their activities and status.

Deborah Haller, Ph.D., Chairman of the Substance Abuse Insurance Task Force, presented the task force with the status of her group's progress and preliminary recommendations. She discussed the issues which had been obstacles to the group's progress and methods used to resolve differences. It was clear that many of the issues were the same or similar to those discussed by the Insurance Task Force and that it would be important, if possible, to dovetail activities with those of the Substance Abuse Insurance Task Force. The Substance Abuse Insurance Task Force has set a late November deadline for submitting its report.

The HJR 319 Task Force would like the opportunity to review the report of the Substance Abuse Insurance Task Force and have sufficient time to formulate findings and prepare its own report. Further, the Bureau of Insurance has planned to undertake a January benefits survey which will yield valuable data for the task force about Virginia's present coverage status.

HJR 319 Insurance Task Force Interim Report

Therefore, the Insurance Task Force is recommending the extension of its study for another year to allow sufficient time to review the report of the Substance Abuse Insurance Task Force and to analyze the information to be collected in the benefits survey to be conducted by the Bureau of Insurance. Study of these documents will be necessary for the task force to complete its work.