On May 15, the U.S. Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Treasury (“the Departments”) released a statement announcing a temporary non-enforcement period regarding their final rule issued on September 9, 2024, titled “Requirements Related to the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act” (“2024 Final Rule”).

The Departments issued this statement shortly after a federal court granted their request to pause litigation challenging the validity of the 2024 Final Rule, which had been brought in January 2025 by the ERISA Industry Committee.  The pause  gives the Departments time to consider whether to rescind or modify the 2024 Final Rule and reexamine more broadly the MHPAEA enforcement program. The temporary non-enforcement period will remain in place until 18 months after a final court decision has been reached in the litigation, during which time the Departments will not enforce the 2024 Final Rule or otherwise pursue enforcement action against a plan or issuer based on a failure to comply.

This enforcement relief only applies only to the portions of the 2024 Final Rule that amended existing federal regulations under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (“MHPAEA”) relating to nonquantitative treatment limitations (“NQTLs”) and the new rules implementing MHPAEA’s statutory requirement to conduct comparative analyses. Accordingly, the relief applies to the new requirements to prepare an ERISA fiduciary certification, to provide “meaningful benefits,” and to collect and analyze relevant outcomes data for comparative analyses, which had staggered effective dates starting with plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2025.

The relief does not suspend enforcement of MHPAEA completely, nor does it impact the requirement that plans and issuers maintain current NQTL comparative analyses under MHPAEA (as amended by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021).   The Departments must still request at least 20 NQTL comparative analyses annually, and participants in ERISA plans continue to have the right to request the NQTL comparative analyses and receive it within 30 days of the request.  Plans and issuers need to remain prepared to respond to such requests.

If you have questions about what this new enforcement position means for the group health plans that you sponsor, contact your Stoel Rives employee benefits attorney: Bethany Bacci, Kiran Griffith, or Gabby Hansen.