1. A. An individual or group health care plan that is delivered, issued for delivery or renewed in this state that offers coverage of behavioral health services shall not impose cost sharing on those behavioral health services in network.

2. B. For the purposes of this section:

   1. (1) "behavioral health services" means professional and ancillary services for the treatment, habilitation, prevention and identification of mental illnesses, substance abuse disorders and trauma spectrum disorders, including inpatient, detoxification, residential treatment and partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient therapy, outpatient therapy and all medications, including brand-name pharmacy drugs when generics are unavailable;
   2. (2) "coinsurance" means a cost-sharing method that requires a subscriber to pay a stated percentage of medical expenses after any deductible amount is paid; provided that coinsurance rates may differ for different types of services under the same individual or group health care plan;
   3. (3) "copayment" means a cost-sharing method that requires a subscriber to pay a fixed dollar amount when health care services are received, with the health care plan paying the balance of the allowable amount; provided that there may be different copayment requirements for different types of services under the same individual or group health care plan; and
   4. (4) "cost sharing" means a copayment, coinsurance, deductible or any other form of financial obligation of a subscriber other than a premium or a share of a premium, or any combination of any of these financial obligations, as defined by the terms of an individual or group health care plan.
3. C. The provisions of this section do not apply to excepted benefit plans as provided under the Short-Term Health Plan and Excepted Benefit Act, catastrophic plans as defined under 42 USCA Section 18022(e) or high-deductible health plans with health savings accounts until a subscriber's deductible has been met, unless otherwise permitted by federal law.

History: Laws 2021, ch. 136, § 9; 2025, ch. 115, § 5.

ANNOTATIONS

The 2025 amendment, effective January 1, 2026, permanently eliminated behavioral health services cost sharing by deleting the 2027 sunset date, added an exemption from the prohibition on cost sharing for behavioral health services for certain plans, and clarified that only services provided in-network are part of the no cost-sharing provisions; in Subsection A, after the subsection designation, deleted "Until January 1, 2027", and after "behavioral health services" added "in network"; in Subsection B, Paragraph B(1), after "outpatient" added "therapy"; and added Paragraph C.