The Biden administration announced a final rule aimed at enhancing access to and reducing costs for mental health and substance use disorder care. This rule primarily applies to group health plans and health insurance issuers for plan years beginning on or after January 1. The rule seeks to ensure that mental health and substance use disorder care on private insurance plans is covered on par with physical health benefits. This could involve adding more mental health and substance use professionals to insurance networks or streamlining administrative processes for providers. President Joe Biden emphasized the importance of treating mental health care equivalently to physical health care, stating that there should be no difference in treatment between a broken arm and a mental health condition.
