Federal Enforcement in Group and Individual Health Insurance Markets

This interim final rule with comment period details procedures for enforcing title XXVII of the Public Health Service Act as added by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, and as amended by the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996, the Newborns' and Mothers' Health Protection Act of 1996, and the Women's Health and Cancer Rights Act of 1998, in States that do not enact the legislation necessary to enforce or otherwise do not substantially enforce the requirements of these acts. This regulation also delineates the process for taking enforcement actions against non-Federal governmental plans and, in those States in which HCFA is directly enforcing the requirements of these acts, health insurance issuers that are not complying with those requirements.