Thirty-five organizations, including the AHA, recently voiced support for the "Medicare Mental Health Inpatient Equity Act," S. 3028. Introduced Feb. 24 by Sens. John Kerry (D-MA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), the legislation would eliminate the 190-day lifetime limit for Medicare beneficiaries receiving care in a psychiatric hospital.

In a letter to the Senate sponsors, the groups said, "Through passage of landmark legislation, the 'Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act,' Congress put coverage for mental health and addictive disorders on par with other medical disorders. In a bipartisan fashion both of you led the effort with important legislation to equalize the Medicare outpatient coinsurance for mental and physical health that also became law in 2008. We must now finish the parity job and finally give Medicare beneficiaries the full parity that other individuals now have."