L: Know Your Rights: New Insurance Protections to Improve Access to Substance Use Disorder and Mental Health Care and Creating a Consumer Assistance Program to Get the Services You Need

This presentation will highlight the important consumer protections in Maryland that entitle you and your family to get timely and affordable access to substance use disorder and mental health treatment and a new proposal that will help Marylanders enforce those rights. The session will identify new legal protections, including increased enforcement of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, restrictions against balance billing, and network adequacy standards in commercial insurance. Because these laws are complicated and hard for an individual to enforce, we will also explore a program proposal to establish a consumer assistance program to help Marylanders understand their insurance coverage for substance use disorder and mental health care and resolve insurance-related problems. Your feedback during this interactive session will be used to create the right program structure and support our advocacy.

Ellen Weber

Sr. VP for Health Initiatives, Legal Action Center

Legal Action Center

Ellen Weber, JD is the Sr. Vice President for Health Initiative at the Legal Action Center, a law and policy organization whose mission is to fight discrimination, build health equity and restore opportunity for people with substance use disorders, arrest and conviction records, and  HIV or AIDS. Ms. Weber leads the Center’s efforts to expand access to comprehensive and equitable substance use treatment at both the state and federal levels and initiatives to enforce the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act in all payer systems. In Maryland, she convenes the Maryland Parity Coalition.  Ms. Weber held an appointment as Professor of Law at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law from 2002-2017 where she directed the Drug Policy and Public Health Strategies Clinic. She has published in the areas of disability rights, enforcement of the Parity Act, integration of substance use disorder care in general medical settings, and access to treatment for women. Ms. Weber started her career as a Voting Rights attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. She received her law degree from the New York University School of Law.

Deborah Steinberg, JD

Senior Policy Attorney

Legal Action Center

Deborah Steinberg, JD is a Senior Health Policy Attorney at the Legal Action Center (LAC), where she advocates for state and federal policies to expand access to comprehensive and equitable substance use disorder and mental health care. Deborah works on LAC's Parity for All campaign, where she helps eliminate discriminatory barriers to treatment in Medicaid and private insurance and assists states in improving their enforcement of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act. She also co-leads the Medicare Addiction Parity Project, an initiative to expand Medicare's coverage of substance use disorder treatment and apply the Parity Act to Medicare. Prior to joining LAC, Deborah worked at Health Law Advocates and the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission. She earned her B.A. in Psychology from Vassar College and her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.