| SB 22 | Out of Committee | Townsend | Approximately one in five adults report experiencing a mental health condition. At the same time, many individuals continue to face delays or barriers when trying to access care, even when they have insurance coverage. Delays, denials, or truncation of treatment leave families and their doctors battling for coverage instead of focusing on treatment and recovery. Families must pay out of pocket for care, on top of premiums for coverage they are not receiving. Further, Delawareans are five times more likely to go out-of-network for mental health care than for primary care, resulting in higher costs.
This Act, known as the Fair Standards in Mental Health Care Act, builds on previous work to advance mental health parity and aims to ensure patients with private insurance can access timely, evidence-based mental health and substance use disorder care in Delaware. This Act supports improved access to mental health disorder and substance use disorder treatment by:
1. Adding and refining key terms, including definitions of mental health disorders and substance use disorders, level of care criteria, medically necessary treatment, utilization review and utilization review criteria to ensure consistency with widely accepted clinical standards of treatment and service intensity determination. This bill forges gold-standard clinical guidelines through requiring insurers to use transparent, evidence-based standards from independent experts, including the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
2. Requiring coverage for all medically necessary treatment, including emergency services and all clinically appropriate levels of care. This bill ends prior authorization delays for mental health and guarantees emergency mental health coverage, just as Delaware already does for addiction treatment.
3. Requiring at least one formulation of certain FDA-approved medications to treat substance use disorders to be placed on the lowest-cost tier of drug formularies.
4. Prohibiting discrimination against individuals with current or predicted mental health disorders or substance use disorders.
5. Requiring carriers to arrange coverage of medically necessary out-of-network services without additional cost to the enrollee if in-network options are unavailable within applicable network access standards, thus ensuring real network access.
6. Removing language currently in the code barring a private right of action for violations of 18 Del. Code § 3343. In addition, the Act clarifies that carriers must provide nonquantitative treatment limitation parity analysis (NQTL parity analysis) that they are required to have completed under federal law to health care providers and current and prospective covered persons, free of charge, upon request.
This Act applies to individual health insurance policies under Chapter 33 of Title 18 and group and blanket health insurance policies under Chapter 35 of Title 18. This Act applies to all policies, contracts, or certificates issued, renewed, modified, altered, amended, or reissued after December 31, 2027.
This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
| AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 18 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO INSURANCE COVERAGE. |
| HCR 125 | Passed | Yearick | This concurrent resolution proclaims the week of May 17-23, 2026, Delaware Grown Week. Twelve years ago, the General Assembly first partnered with the Delaware Department of Agriculture to establish this annual observation to facilitate better, healthier relationships between Delaware farmers and local consumers. Delaware Grown Week is celebrated annually, the third full week of May. Successful passage of this resolution will continue this worthy collaboration. | PROCLAIMING THE WEEK OF MAY 17TH THROUGH MAY 23RD, 2026, AS DELAWARE GROWN WEEK. |
| HCR 128 | Passed | Burns | This concurrent resolution declares that May 17-23, 2026, is "Children's Research Week" and recognizes and honors Nemours Children’s Health Delaware Valley Pediatric Research for its outstanding contributions to improving children’s health, advancing pediatric science, and strengthening the health and well-being of families in Delaware and beyond. | DECLARING THAT MAY 17-23, 2026, IS "CHILDREN'S RESEARCH WEEK" AND RECOGNIZING AND HONORING THE SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS OF NEMOURS CHILDREN’S HEALTH DELAWARE VALLEY PEDIATRIC RESEARCH TO CHILDREN’S HEALTH IN DELAWARE, THE REGION, AND THE NATION. |
| SS 1 for SB 189 w/ SA 1 | Committee | Poore | This legislation is intended to ensure that individuals can, for a period of 15 days, rescind approval of a settlement in a personal injury case involving a motor vehicle accident if the individual was unrepresented at the time of settlement and if payment is returned upon rescission. This Act also requires notice to be given to an unrepresented individual of their right of recission in the release of liability. These changes will allow an individual greater ability to make an informed decision. This Act becomes effective on 6 months after its enactment into law.
This Act is a substitute for Senate Bill No. 189. The Act differs from Senate Bill No. 189 in that it provides a rescission period of 15 days, rather than 60 days; it refers to “motor vehicle accidents” rather than “automobile accidents”; it adds a new subsection to make clear that the insurer may withhold any future settlement proceeds until it receives confirmation that the check or settlement proceeds have been returned; and it corrects a typo. | ACT TO AMEND TITLE 18 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO UNFAIR PRACTICES IN THE INSURANCE BUSINESS. |
| SA 1 to SS 1 for SB 189 | Passed | Poore | This Amendment to Senate Substitute No. 1 for Senate Bill No. 189 clarifies that an individual seeking to rescind a release of a claim must have the return a notice of rescission and settlement proceeds to the releasee or releasee's legal representative or insurance carrier confirmed by certified mail, certificate of mailing, ACH tracking number, or other recognized method of funds tracking. In addition, this Amendment clarifies that in order to be subject to this Act, a release must be signed by an individual within 30 days of the motor vehicle accident. | |
