Sponsors (2)
The bill strengthens enforcement and funds enforcement capacity to improve access to behavioral health benefits, but it raises compliance, litigation, and budgetary costs that are likely to affect employers, insurers, and taxpayers.
People with mental health or substance use disorders and plan participants will face stronger enforcement and increased federal enforcement funding, improving insurer compliance and likely expanding access to covered behavioral health services.
Plan sponsors, administrators, and service providers become more accountable because the bill expands the range of entities that can be penalized, creating stronger incentives for compliance across actors who manage or deliver benefits.
Individuals affected by discrimination or genetic-information violations benefit from clearer statutory cross-references and covered subsections, which should improve enforcement clarity and speed remedies.
Employers, insurers, plan sponsors, and service providers will likely incur higher compliance and administrative costs and face expanded liability and litigation risk, which could be passed on to employees and plan participants as higher premiums, reduced benefits, or increased costs for small businesses.
Some enforcement authority over parity is explicitly limited for the Secretary, which could create fragmentation, uneven enforcement, or confusion about who enforces parity rules.
Federal spending increases by roughly $150 million over five years to fund enforcement activities, which could raise taxpayer costs or require offsets elsewhere in the budget.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Expands ERISA penalty authority to plan administrators and service providers for parity and nondiscrimination violations and funds EBSA $30M/year for FY2027–2031 to enforce mental health parity.
Official title: To provide for civil monetary penalties for violations of mental health parity requirements.
Introduced June 30, 2026 by Thomas Kean · Last progress June 30, 2026
Expands federal enforcement of mental health and substance use disorder parity by widening who can be penalized for violations and by funding enforcement. The bill allows civil monetary penalties under ERISA to apply to plan administrators, plan sponsors, and service providers for certain nondiscrimination and parity violations and directs $30 million per year to the Employee Benefits Security Administration for five fiscal years to carry out parity enforcement work.