A national coalition of providers, clinicians, families and advocates
A national coalition of providers, clinicians, families and advocates
Our legislative agenda for recovery and behavioral health, and the watchdog work holding insurers accountable.
On this page
Legislative agenda
Current bills
Watchdog reports
A
Take Care of America's Veterans Act
H.R. 8501 / Kean press release
Veterans CENTERS for Mental Health Act of 2026
Full name: Veterans Centers-Enabled National Treatment Equitable Resource Supplement. Bipartisan. Expands local counseling for veterans and their immediate families by funding more community Vet Centers in underserved areas.
[1]
B
Tackles the national provider shortage with boosted Medicare payment incentives for clinicians in shortage areas. Covers psychiatrists, psychologists, marriage and family therapists, clinical social workers, and mental health counselors.
[1]
H.R. 8081
C
Becker's Behavioral Health
Creates permanent Medicare and Medicaid payment infrastructure for Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs). Gives local clinics dependable federal funding for 24/7 crisis care and direct coordination with families and local veterans organizations.
[1]
H.R. 9551
H.R. 957
Enacted · Effective July 1, 2026
State bills
E
Families
Expanded community clinic crisis care and family counseling access
CCBHC Framework, Vet CENTERS Act
Veterans
Strict 48-hour care mandates; direct access to non-VA community doctors
Take Care of America's Veterans Act
Doctors and Providers
Increased Medicare reimbursements and recruitment flexibilities
More Behavioral Health Providers Act
MHPAEA does not require a plan to cover behavioral health at all. It requires that a plan that does cover it apply no greater restriction to those benefits than it applies to medical and surgical benefits of a comparable level.
That distinction is where most of the practical difficulty lies. The restrictions at issue are rarely written into the plan document. They appear in how medical necessity criteria are applied, how often concurrent review occurs, how long an authorization runs, and how reimbursement rates are set relative to comparable medical services. The law calls these nonquantitative treatment limitations, and they are harder to prove than a simple coverage exclusion because they emerge from operational practice rather than from policy language.
BHDA publishes plain language explanations of these requirements for providers, families, and policymakers who need to understand what the law does and does not reach.
Medical necessity criteria
Concurrent review
Authorization length
Reimbursement rates
BHDA publishes periodic research drawn from member-submitted denial records, discharge decisions, and reimbursement data. Reports are anonymized at the patient level and aggregated to show patterns rather than anecdote.
Each report states its methodology, its sample size, and its limitations. We publish the limitations because research that overstates its reach gets dismissed on the first reading, and we would rather be believed than quoted.