The US Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and the Treasury (together, the Departments) filed a motion to suspend the litigation proceedings in The ERISA Industry Committee vs. HHS et al. on May 9, 2025 while the government reconsiders final regulations implementing the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA). On May 12, the US District Court for the District of Columbia granted the stay.
The lawsuit, filed by the ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC), challenges the Departments’ final rule issued on September 23, 2024, which imposes new requirements on group health plans related to nonquantitative treatment limitations (NQTLs) under the MHPAEA (the 2024 Rule, on which we previously wrote).
According to the motion, the Departments are actively reconsidering the 2024 Rule and may initiate a new rulemaking process to revise or rescind it. In the interim, the Departments are preparing to issue a non-enforcement policy that will apply to portions of the 2024 final regulations that apply for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2025 and January 1, 2026.
While the specific scope of any non-enforcement policy is not yet clear, the ERIC lawsuit generally focuses on those provisions which ERIC argues present an overreach by the Departments and are unduly burdensome to plan sponsors, including the meaningful benefits requirement, the material differences in access standard, and the requirement for a fiduciary certification of the comparative analyses.
The Departments’ motion is generally in line with the April 9 presidential memoranda directing the heads of all executive departments and agencies to identify certain categories of unlawful and potentially unlawful regulations.
The 2024 Rule created much confusion for plan sponsors, and this new development is undoubtedly welcome news for many plan sponsors struggling to comply with the 2024 Rule.
While we wait for the Departments’ non-enforcement policy to be published, plan sponsors should not interpret this development to delay ensuring NQTLs are in parity as written and in operation. The requirement to document a comparable process for NQTLs remains a requirement under the MHPAEA, and the non-enforcement policy on the 2024 Rule should not change that compliance obligation.
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