CHQI Announces Online Parity Compliance Tool for Health Plans

ANNAPOLIS, Md., PRNewswire/ -- ClearHealth Quality Institute^TM (CHQI), an independent health care accrediting body, is pleased to announce its new Online Parity Compliance Tool, the first and only comprehensive digital resource designed for health plans and other organizations to build, implement, and manage a parity compliance program that meets key regulatory and accreditation requirements.

Health plans, employers, third-party administrators and others can soon access CHQI’s interactive Online Parity Tool, which will offer a secure platform to help build and maintain mental health parity compliance programs. The tool will be available totally independently from the accreditation process. The tool will also serve as the online application portal for CHQI’s new Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder MH/SUD Parity Accreditation Program for those entities prepared to apply. In addition, regulators may opt to license the tool to support data collection for market conduct exams.

Kevin Malone, JD, CHQI’s Parity Accreditation Program Director, notes that “since the adoption of the Federal Parity Law in 2008, federal and state regulators across the country have struggled to provide clear and consistent guidance on how to collect and submit information necessary to document compliance with the law. As a result, CHQI launched a two-year initiative to create the MH/SUD Parity Accreditation Program, with a primary purpose of filling regulatory gaps and implementing consistent national standards. In support of the accreditation program and implementation of effective compliance programs, the CHQI Online Parity Compliance Tool will serve as a roadmap for health plans to implement a successful parity compliance program.”

CHQI’s Online Parity Tool will include the following industry-leading functions:

• Provides an intuitive document management system to organize all the supporting operational documents necessary to demonstrate parity compliance;
• Uses a streamlined system to identify and classify covered benefits;
• Creates a framework for quantitative testing of financial requirements and quantitative treatment limits;
• Implements an innovative approach to perform comparability and stringency testing for non-quantitative treatment limits (NQTLs);
• Automatically identifies a wide range of per-se parity violations and areas where the user lacks information necessary to complete the parity compliance analysis; and
• Generates important feedback loops and reports to ensure parity compliance optimization.

All organizations subscribing to the CHQI Online Parity Tool will also have access to several important support documents:

• The CHQI MH/SUD Parity Accreditation Program Standards and Guide, version 1.0, which creates a roadmap to identify what applicants need to do to achieve accreditation; and
• The CHQI Regulatory Compliance Guide, which includes the most comprehensive summary of federal regulatory and sub-regulatory guidance regarding the Federal Parity Law that has been issued over the past 10 years.

Through its new Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder MH/SUD Parity Accreditation Program, CHQI has combined the best of consulting, accreditation and technology solutions to help implement the Federal Parity Law in a meaningful and practical manner.

Monique Yohanan, MD, CHQI’s Senior Accreditation Clinical Reviewer, states that “As the new MH/SUD Parity Accreditation Program becomes a national standard, the CHQI seal will allow accredited companies to distinguish themselves from their competition and better respond to RFPs and other contracting requirements. The new Online Parity Tool will help companies to organize and automate how parity is achieved, benefiting health plans, consumers, providers, regulators and others alike.”

“In recent years, court actions and legal settlements related to the Federal Parity Law and applicable state laws have been on the rise,” notes Michael Gomes, CHQI’s CEO. “More than 50 parity-related legal claims and court cases have been filed or decided recently, along with a growing number of state regulatory audits looking at how health plans cover mental health and substance use disorder treatments. CHQI’s Online Parity Tool will help health plans implement a proactive risk management program in anticipation of tighter regulatory and legal oversight.”

CHQI will soon offer demos of the new Online Parity Tool and the new MH/SUD Parity Accreditation Program to qualified health plans and potential clients. To request a demo or learn more about CHQI, email info@chqi.com or visit www.chqi.com.

About ClearHealth Quality Institute™ (www.chqi.com)
ClearHealth Quality Institute’s (CHQI) mission is to promote quality-based practices for health plans, providers and other stakeholders across the United States and its territories. Our accreditation and certification programs help assess, track and report on trends to enhance key insurance and provider outcomes. CHQI also offers educational programs, publishes issue briefs and underwrites research to raise awareness of patient safety issues and promote best practices. The organization is governed by an independent board and committee system, which is open to a wide range of volunteer members to ensure transparency and accountability. CHQI provides resources to serve patients, providers, payers, government agencies, and other stakeholder groups. To learn more about CHQI, please email info@chqi.com or visit www.chqi.com.

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SOURCE ClearHealth Quality Institute