{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/in-the-news/sen-murphy-talks-mental-health-reform-act-in-westport", "Sen. Murphy talks Mental Health Reform Act in Westport", "2016-12-23", "2016", "2016-12", "Democrat", "House", "CT", "Christopher Murphy", "M001169", "www.murphy.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Sen. Murphy talks Mental Health Reform Act in Westport\r\n\t\t\t\t\r\n                \r\n            \r\n            \r\n            \r\n\r\n                \r\n                \r\n\r\n                    \r\n                    Westport News\r\n                    \r\n                    \r\n                \r\n            Friday, December 23, 2016\r\n            \n\t\n\r\n            \r\n            \u00a0U.S. Sen.\u00a0Chris Murphy\u00a0brought his victory tour to town this week, celebrating the passing of a bill he helped author that could substantially improve mental health care and substance abuse treatment in the country.\r\nOn Wednesday, Murphy stopped at\u00a0St. Vincent\u2019s\u00a0Behavioral Health Services\u00a0in Westport to explain aspects of the Mental Health Reform Act, a bill included in the 21st Century Cures Act, signed into law by President\u00a0Barack Obama\u00a0on Dec. 13.\r\nMurphy teamed up with U.S. Sen.\u00a0Bill Cassidy, R-La., to write the bill. The package received overwhelming bipartisan support in the House and Senate. It includes a $1 billion grant to help states combat the opioid crisis and $4.8 billion for research at\u00a0the National Institutes of Health. A portion of the NIH money will focus on brain research to uncover new treatments.\r\nThe new law updates substandard mental health parity laws, and thus requires insurance plans to provide comparable benefits for mental health and substance abuse as for physical health issues.\r\n\u201cYour statement of benefits today will tell you that you have mental health coverage,\u201d Murphy said to the audience, which included health care professionals. \u201cBut as you all know, when you try to go access that benefit, it\u2019s often not there, or you have to go through hurdles and hoops that, frankly, you don\u2019t have to go through when you are trying to get reimbursement for a cancer treatment or for an orthopedic procedure.\u201d\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s just a lot harder to get treatment for the part of your body above the neck than the part of your body below the neck,\u201d he said.\r\nThe newly passed bill enhances the ability to enforce parity laws by mandating federal agencies to report such violations and provides them with methods by which to crack down on that wrongdoing. If a health plan is found to violate those laws, the government is required to conduct an audit.\r\nAn example Murphy gave was if a health plan is found to be rejecting prior authorizations on mental health treatment at a noticeably higher rate than prior authorizations on physical treatment, it is in violation of the law and subject to an investigation.\r\n\u201cThere\u2019s a new audit tool that\u2019s automatically triggered after a certain number of consumer complaints. There\u2019s new guidance that\u2019s required to be put out to insurance companies to give them specific examples and guidance on when they are in violation of parity laws and when they are not,\u201d Murphy said.\r\nThe senator is confident the guidelines for insurers will open hundreds of millions of dollars in new mental health care authorized by insurance companies. He believes it will make the reimbursement process for patients easier. Murphy said whether the changes will be implemented is dependent on how the\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0administration chooses to proceed.\r\nThe bill creates a new position, assistant secretary for mental health and substance use in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The office is responsible for better coordinating mental health services across the federal government, a position that oversees billions of dollars spent on mental health and addiction.\r\nMurphy said the bill did not accomplish everything he wanted, nor does he feel the legislation will cure more than 5 or 10 percent of issues in the system, but it does serve as the foundation for future bipartisan success.\r\nThe bill passed 94 to 5 in the Senate and 392 to 26 in the House. But according to the\u00a0New York Times, it drew criticism for failing to address the high cost of prescription drugs. U.S. Sen.\u00a0Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., was one of the five senators who opposed the 21st Century Cures Act because of its concessions to the pharmaceutical industry, the newspaper said.\r\n\u201cThis bill didn\u2019t solve every problem,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cClearly, the pharmaceutical companies have a lot to answer for when it comes to the opioid and heroin epidemic, but this is a really important bill with very significant money to combat the opioid epidemic. No bill is going to get 100 votes. This one got 95, and we still have work to do to hold the drug companies accountable for their decades of pushing pills on the American public.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/in-the-news/sen-murphy-talks-mental-health-reform-act-in-westport"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6210367903113365, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}