Insurance groups would fund children’s behavioral health services

A nonprofit association would collect assessments from insurance companies, health service organizations, health maintenance organizations, and third-party administrators to pay for covered children’s behavioral health services. The assessment would cover children under 19 who live in New Hampshire and have qualifying health coverage, except children whose services are paid through Medicaid. The association would need an operating plan approved by the insurance commissioner. Assessments would pay care management entities for in-home services, intensive outpatient care, care coordination, and trained parent or youth peer support. The board could include operating costs, reserves, and up to a 10 percent reserve for unexpected service costs. The bill provides no state appropriation; implementation would depend on enactment and money collected through assessments. The act would take effect 60 days after passage. The board would set the assessment for each succeeding year by November 1 and could impose no more than one interim assessment per year.

The insurance commissioner would require health insurers, health service corporations, and health maintenance organizations to submit detailed comparisons of mental health and medical coverage. The reports would cover services for children ages 0 through 5 and children age 18 and younger, including coverage rules, denials, complaints, provider networks, and provider qualifications. The reports would be used to review compliance with state and federal mental health parity rules. The commissioner could make the analyses public only to the extent allowed by state and federal law. This provision would take effect 60 days after passage, with no separate reporting deadline stated in the supplied text.