Parity Enhancement for Addiction Recovery.

HB 634 updates North Carolina laws to enhance parity in health insurance coverage for mental health and addiction recovery. It requires all health benefit plans to provide benefits for mental health conditions that are no less favorable than those for physical illnesses, including applying the same financial limits. A key provision mandates that medical necessity determinations for substance use disorders must rely solely on the most recent American Society of Addiction Medicine criteria. The bill also requires the State Health Plan for Teachers and State Employees to comply with these new utilization review standards and updates terminology from "chemical dependency" to "substance use disorder" in relevant statutes.