Georgia Mental Health Policy Partnership wants lawmakers to enforce Mental Health Parity Act

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Roland Behm speaks at a podium at the Georgia Freight Depot in Atlanta Feb. 18, 2026.

Credit: Ellen Eldridge/GPB News

State and federal law require equal insurance coverage for both physical and mental illness. But advocates say Georgia needs to hold insurers accountable when behavioral health care is hard to find.

Senate Bill 131 creates a parity enforcement review panel to hold insurance companies accountable when mental health services are not covered equitably. That includes when patients cannot find a provider in network, said Roland Behm, one of the founders of the Georgia Mental Health Policy Partnership.

"What we need is that statute enforced — and in particular, what we need to ensure is that individuals who need medically necessary mental health care have access to that care and are not denied, delayed, or giving something less than," he said.

After almost four years, neither regulator — the Department of Community Health and the Office of Insurance and Safety Fire — has taken action that results in a Georgian receiving care after a parity-involved denial, Behm said.

Commissioner John King recently levied fines for violations made in 2022 after his office conducted comprehensive audits of private health insurers that took years. 

"I think the companies ought to pay attention," King said during Mental Health Parity Day on Feb. 2. "I told them they needed to pay attention to this and that. Apparently, they didn't take me seriously. Well now this is my effort for them to understand that I'm serious about this." 

In all, 22 private health insurance companies were fined a total of about $25 million, which Behm said is unlikely to change behavior.

"What we have are citations, fines, and press statements, at least from OCI," he said. "What we do not have is the one thing the law was designed for: a person who was wrongfully turned away getting the treatment they were owed."