Manatt healthcare litigation partner Joseph Laska and associates Nathaniel Cohen and Jessamyn Vedro authored an article for Law360 about S.B. 855, which was recently signed into law by California Governor Gavin Newsom. According to the authors, this rule alters California’s regulation of mental health (MH) and substance use disorder (SUD) treatments in the state, and applies to all California health plans and disability insurance policies issued, amended or renewed on or after January 1, 2021. In the article, the authors discussed the impact that the new law might have on payers and MH/SUD providers, noting that “S.B. 855 expands state coverage requirements for MH/SUD services and requires health plans and insurers to adopt a standardized definition of ‘medical necessity’ for MH/SUD treatments,” which will likely require health plans and insurers to enact significant changes to their existing products and administrative processes before the law is enacted.
Read the article here.