Recently, Ohio Senate concurred with the House of Representatives’ amendments to Senate Bill 284, which now includes Senate Bill 254, a bipartisan bill sponsored by State Senator Teresa Gavarone and State Senator Sean O’Brien.
Senate Bill 254 would better ensure access to mental health and substance abuse treatment. The bill would prohibit insurers from covering illnesses of the brain more in a more restrictive way than illnesses of the body, according to a news release from Gavarone.
In 2008, the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act was signed into law on the federal level. However, two years prior, Ohio created its own parity law and has not updated it to align with federal law.
S.B. 254, which would align state parity law with federal law, now heads to the Governor's desk for signature.