The Georgia Mental Health Policy Partnership is urging state lawmakers to enforce the Mental Health Parity Act, arguing that state regulators have failed to hold insurance companies accountable when behavioral health care is hard to find. The partnership has introduced Senate Bill 131, which would create a parity enforcement review panel to hold insurers accountable.
Enforcement Gap
State and federal law require equal insurance coverage for both physical and mental illness. However, advocates say Georgia needs to hold insurers accountable when behavioral health care is difficult to access. According to Roland Behm, one of the founders of the Georgia Mental Health Policy Partnership, after almost four years, neither regulator — the Department of Community Health and the Office of Insurance and Safety Fire — has taken action that results in a Georgian receiving care after a parity-involved denial.
Recent Regulatory Action
Commissioner John King recently levied fines for violations made in 2022 after his office conducted comprehensive audits of private health insurers that took years. In total, 22 private health insurance companies were fined approximately $25 million. However, Behm said the fines are unlikely to change behavior. The issue is that what exists are “citations, fines, and press statements” but not the one thing the law was designed for: “a person who was wrongfully turned away getting the treatment they were owed.”
Proposed Solution
Senate Bill 131 would address this gap by creating a parity enforcement review panel. The goal is to ensure that individuals who need medically necessary mental health care have access to that care and are not denied, delayed, or given something less than what physical health coverage provides.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.gpb.org/news/2026/02/20/georgia-mental-health-policy-partnership-wants-lawmakers-enforce-mental-health