Last Friday, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) Industry Committee (ERIC) filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Departments of Labor, Treasury, and Health and Human Services seeking to invalidate their September 2024 Mental Health Parity Final Rule implementing the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA). The lawsuit alleges that the final Mental Health Parity Rule is unlawful because it exceeds the departments’ authority under the MHPAEA and the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, violates the due process clause in the Fifth Amendment, is “arbitrary and capricious,” and violates the Administrative Procedure Act. The lawsuit also claims that the January 1st effective date for many of the final rule’s provisions is arbitrary and capricious because it did not leave enough time for plans governed by the ERISA to come into compliance with the new and “vaguely worded” regulations.
