FRANKFORT, Ky. (Nov. 4, 2025) — Two lawmakers joined with advocates from the mental health profession on Tuesday, urging the Interim Joint Committee on Banking and Insurance to support proposed legislation that seeks to improve mental health parity in insurance.
Rep. Vanessa Grossl (R-Georgetown) and Rep. Lisa Willner (D-Louisville) testified in support of the measure along with Sheila Schuster, chair of the Kentucky Mental Health Coalition, and Nicole Sartini, president of Bridge Counseling and Wellness in Louisville.
“The Kentucky General Assembly has recognized mental health as an issue for a number of years, and mental health needs to remain a priority for us,” Grossl told the committee.
She said a measure from 2021 required insurers to treat mental health the same as physical health, and “we’re here today to discuss fidelity issues with that law to ensure that insurers are following the law with fidelity and that proper enforcement mechanisms are in place for those who do not.”
Grossl said the Kentucky Department of Insurance’s ability to implement the current law has drawn concern.
“Reports from the department have not addressed mental health parity nor did last month’s department update testimony to this committee. We believe additional legislative oversight is warranted,” she said. “At this point, we should have already been presented with two full years’ worth of data via those annual reporting requirements that the bill clarified for insurers.”
The proposed legislation would give oversight and enforcement capabilities to the legislature and the Kentucky Office of the Attorney General. It would also support consumers and providers with an advisory committee of experts in the field that reports to the attorney general, Grossl said. The proposed legislation can be found here.
Willner, a licensed psychologist, said the bill is fully bipartisan. “That’s because mental health care is not a partisan issue,” she said, noting similar legislation from last year. “I also want to point out that the bill is watermarked ‘draft,’ so this is very much a work in progress.”
Willner said there has been significant policy progress on behavioral health parity in Kentucky and federally, but enforcement and situations providers face remain significant challenges.
“Access to in-network behavioral health services remains significantly less than access to in-network medical and surgical treatments,” she said.
The federal 2008 Mental Health Parity and Addictions Equity Act requires that health plans not design or apply financial requirements or treatment limitations differently for behavioral health than they would be for comparable medical or surgical benefits, but the burdens remain in Kentucky and federally, Willner said.
Several legislators had questions for the individuals who testified. One of them was Sen. Julie Raque Adams (R-Louisville), who asked about mental health professionals who receive claw backs from insurers.
“Do you have to have any sort of pre-authorization before you administer services,” she asked.
Sartini said her practice provides outpatient services and deals with fewer pre-authorizations than others.
“We’re seeing that these are happening sometimes because someone has a primary insurance and then they also have a secondary insurance. And even though we are billing under the primary insurance, there’s a conflict that sometimes causes claw backs, and no one will agree to pay for it,” she said.
Rep. Adrielle Camuel (D-Lexington) said mental health parity is a complicated issue, and she respects mental health professionals but has concerns that the proposed legislation in its current form doesn’t open avenues for access to care.
Rep. Jim Gooch (R-Providence) said it sounds reasonable that there should be mental health parity, but he thinks the mental health industry “over compensates, over treats, over prescribes.” He said many children are diagnosed with a condition that schools must approach like a disability.
“Now the educators have to look at them and consider their disability in how they accept behavior … because their disability may cause some particular action or some way they act out,” he said.
Rep. Chad Aull (D-Lexington) asked about a projected $300,000 cost in the proposed legislation.
Grossl said it’s preliminarily to hire two paralegals for the attorney general’s office to ensure due diligence is met.
Schuster said unless the legislature acts to ensure insurers follow rules, mental health and addiction problems won’t be solved in Kentucky.
“Very few people are willing to admit that they, or someone in their family, has a mental health or addictive disorder that’s going to need insurance. That’s what stigma does, and it’s still alive and well,” she said.
Legislators can’t act on proposed legislation until the 2026 Regular Session begins in January.
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“Capitol Update” is a non-partisan publication of the Legislative Research Commission
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