Georgia mental health advocates applaud state fines for insurance violations
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Georgia Insurance Commissioner John King has issued a $20 million fine to be split among 22 different insurance companies. King’s office saidthe companies violated the state’s Mental Health Parity Act, which requires mental health care to be treated – and billed – the same as physical and surgical healthcare.
While the identities of the 22 insurers are unknown for now, King’s office noted it found 6,000 combined violations of the state’s parity law.
They ranged from inconsistent identification and application of benefit classifications to reprocessing of claims and applications of prior authorization for services not identified as requiring such authorization. In a statement, King was blunt in his explanation of the fines. “The time to get in compliance with the law was yesterday,” King said.
Essentially, said Sarah Phillips, who leads the Carter Center’s mental health program, insurers were keeping up barriers to mental health coverage that they were required by law to take down. “If you have health insurance, you have coverage for your mental health care,” said Phillips. “When mental health care is treated equally to physical health care, even by insurers, it reinforces that mental health is just as important as physical health.” The violations were discovered during a mandatory process where the state Insurance Commissioner’s office must conduct an annual data call. It ensures insurers operating in the state of Georgia comply with all laws, including the 2022 Mental Health Parity Act.
The first data call after the law was passed, conducted in 2023, triggered an investigation into the 22 insurance companies fined. Potential violations are reviewed through a process called market conduct exam, which can take months or even years.
The fines were a product of the Insurance Commissioner’s market conduct exam. According to the National Alliance for Mental Illness, 1.4 million Georgians suffer from mental health issues, but more than half did not receive care in 2024,citing costas the main reason.
Phillips said adherence to the law is especially important, considering patients suffering from mental health often face stiffer barriers to care. “That can look like higher copays, longer wait times for appointments, outright denials of treatment,” she said. “We’re looking to our state agencies to continue monitoring for non-compliance and taking action like Department of Insurance has.” On Monday, State Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, a co-author of the parity act, said the fines were a good start, but more needed to be done to hold wrongdoing insurers accountable. “It’s taken us a while to get to sanctioning insurance companies, but here we are,” she said. “We’re seeing the implementation of teeth.
We have a lot more work to do about how the complaint process works – does it work as well as it can? Are providers complaining?
Do families know about this?” The Carter Center, for its part, plans to undertake an aggressive public awareness campaign to make people aware of their rights under the state’s Mental Health Parity Act. Monday was also what would have been the 98th birthday of former First Lady Rosalyn Carter, a longtime champion of mental health care.
Carter helped pass the federal Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act in 2008 and later helped shepherd the Georgia version to passage. From an electronic billboard across the street from the Capitol, wishing her a happy birthday, Carter’s face looked down, keeping a watchful eye on the issue she was instrumental on. “I think she would consider this a great birthday gift,” said Phillips. “I think she would be delighted to see that our state is holding our insurers accountable.” Copyright 2025 WANF.
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