Implementing mental health parity: the challenge for health plans.

By design, the new mental health parity law should work harmoniously with innovations that have helped slow down growth in mental health and substance abuse (MH/SA) treatment costs and improve their quality. The main purpose of the new law is to put coverage of MH/SA benefits on an equal footing with general medical benefits. But some unique features of care for MH/SA disorders will pose challenges in aligning benefits with general medical care. Successful navigation of these challenges will require, as in the passage of the parity law itself, cooperation from all stakeholder groups.