NY S08426

Requires all insurers providing mental health or substance use disorder coverage to comply with the federal Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 and prohibits discrimination in benefit design based on an individual's history, present condition, or predicted mental health or substance use disorder

Mandates insurers provide "meaningful benefits" for mental health and substance use disorders in every benefit classification where medical or surgical benefits are offered, including coverage of "core treatments" as defined by generally accepted standards of care

Prohibits insurers from using discriminatory factors or biased evidentiary standards when designing nonquantitative treatment limitations, and requires collection and evaluation of data to ensure mental health limitations are not more restrictive than those applied to medical/surgical benefits

Requires insurers to submit annual compliance reports starting January 1, 2026, post them on a publicly available website, and provide nonquantitative treatment limitation parity analyses free of charge within 30 days upon request from providers, enrollees, or employers

Imposes a penalty of $100 per day for failure to provide requested compliance analyses, with automatic reversal of adverse benefit determinations if insurers fail to provide required analyses in connection with a coverage denial