New CT law holds insurance companies accountable for denying access to treatment

Hartford Courant – Wednesday, July 23, 2025
By Livi Stanford

A new law will continue to improve patients’ access to mental health services, holding insurance companies accountable if the companies do not treat mental health and substance use disorders as equivalent to physical illnesses.

Strengthening the state’s mental health parity law enacted in 2019, SB 10 enables the state to issue fines up to $625,000 if insurance companies do not comply. Further, the law also makes public those insurance companies who do not comply with the law.

Connecticut ranks ninth nationally for mental health access, according to Connecticut Senate Democrats.

The House passed the legislation in a 122-26 vote on June 2 and the Senate passed the bill in a 31-5 vote on May 21.

“This bill results in more transparency, information and consequences for noncompliance,” said Rep. Cristin McCarthy Vahey, D-Fairfield, co-chair of the Public Health Committee. “This will provide important data to legislators, regulators and the general public about parity for mental health coverage. The collaborative work, led by the Mental Health Parity Coalition, results in the state being able to assure compliance and access to mental healthcare for more Connecticut residents.”

The National Alliance on Mental Illness refers to mental health parity as “the equal treatment of mental health conditions and substance use disorders in insurance plans.”

For example, NAMI states if you are provided unlimited doctor visits for a chronic condition such as diabetes that you must have “unlimited visits for a mental health condition such as depression or schizophrenia.”

According to the bill’s analysis, SB 10 also limits “a health carrier’s use of step therapy,” which is a prescription drug protocol that “requires patients to try less expensive drugs before higher cost drugs.

“Specifically, the bill prohibits certain individual and group health insurance policies or contracts from requiring the use of step therapy for drugs used to treat multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis, as long as the drug complies with approved Food and Drug Administration indications,” the bill’s analysis states. “Additionally, the bill makes permanent a prohibition on the use of step therapy for drugs used to treat schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, or bipolar disorder.”

Christian Damiana, public policy manager for Mental Health CT, told legislators, Gov. Ned Lamont and others at a signing ceremony at the Institute of Living in Hartford on July 10 that the state now has one of the strongest parity enforcement frameworks in the country.

“It is a major victory in our ongoing fight to ensure all Connecticut residents can access the mental health care they need,” he said. “For too long insurance companies have violated mental health parity laws with little consequences for denying care … and placing unnecessary obstacles between patients and treatment.”

Lamont said at the ceremony that the state would enforce the law.

“We are going to make sure there is mental health parity,” he said. “Physical health. Mental health. They are one and the same.”

The governor mentioned said after the COVID pandemic he listened to some of the 211 calls made by young people who said they never felt more alone and scared, asking if they were going to survive.

“The good news is people are coming forward when they know they have this need,” he said. “But it’s tough seeing the incredible stress out there. “It is a reminder that physical health and mental health are one and the same and we will make sure our insurance companies remember that every day.”

Adrienne Parham remembers waiting eight hours for intake for an eating disorder unit for preauthorization from her insurance company “to prove that I was deserving of inpatient care,” the social worker recently said at the signing ceremony.

She also recalls seeing other patients devastated “when having to leave eating disorder treatments due to insurance coverage determining they are not sick enough to receive treatment due to their weight or lack of physical evidence of illness.”

“I want to be clear in emphasizing that mental illness is not what you see on the outside,” she said. “It is the toll it takes on the person mentally and emotionally that makes the critical difference.”

Javeed Sukhera, chair of psychiatry at the Institute of Living and chief of the department of psychiatry at Hartford Hospital, told the Courant that parity has always been a problem.

“Mental health treatment for a long time has not been accessible,” he said. “It has been challenging to find. People who work in the system have struggled to get covered and supported and remunerated for their work. The problem of access to mental health in the United States is pretty deep and embedded.”

The bill allows the state to impose pretty significant fines that make it financially risky to deny legitimate care in an arbitrary fashion, Sukhera said.

Sukhera said there is no incentive for the payor to change their practice if not held accountable for doing the right thing for the patient.

“For a patient right now there is a lot of time and energy that goes into denying coverage that gets in the way for people who are already feeling sensitive and stressed out,” he said. “This is a population of people in the state and the country who are already very vulnerable. They shouldn’t have the burden of proof on them. It really helps shift the burden of proof for coverage and paying for coverage that is medically necessary away from people who are suffering and toward the payors.”

The stories Sukhera says he hears from patients are heartbreaking.

“Less people are taking insurance and more people are charging out of pocket and limiting access to families like mine,” he said.

Sukhera said the level of need continues to be unprecedented.

“The challenge of accessing care continues to be difficult,” he said. “The need is only growing and sadly in some cases it feels at times it is getting worse.”

Sen. Matt Lesser, D-Middletown, who wrote the mental health parity law in 2019, said he does not believe there is a family in the state who has not been touched by mental health or substance abuse issues.

“It is unfortunately the great equalizer and folks in all corners of the state have experience with it themselves or with someone they love,” he said. “It is a time when we need to make sure we are keeping equal access to resources and taking care of our young people.”

State Sen. Jorge Cabrera, D-Hamden, co-chair of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee, who led Senate passage of SB-10, according to Connecticut Senate Democrats, said the bottom line is the bill provides more transparency and accountability.

Sen. Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor, co-chair of the Public Health Committee, said the law is a move in the right direction.

“This law allows us to have the mental health parity compliance strengthened further,” he said. “It is unfortunate that in many instances the insurers have failed to comply with the state and federal mental parity laws. This bill gives us a better opportunity to hold them accountable. ”

Anwar said the bill also makes it illegal to limit anesthesia care.

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