Senate Committee Unveil Draft Legislation to Make Medicare Advantage Directories for Mental Healthcare Accurate

The US Senate Finance Committee has released a draft of new legislation intended to make Medicare Advantage plans update and make available certain information to patients. This information includes provider contact details and availability for new patient intake. In addition, the draft would help target pay parity in mental healthcare.

According to Robert King, “The goal of the legislation is to address part of the issue of “ghost networks,” where plan holders are unable to gain access to mental health providers because of inaccurate directories. The draft also hopes to codify other regulations that call for Medicaid managed care organizations to keep their provider directories updated and say whether the providers are accepting new patients. ”

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(Source: Fierce Healthcare, December 2^nd, 2022)