The Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 was signed into law on October 3 as part of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act financial-market rescue legislation.  The Act amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and the Public Health Service Act to require health insurance plans that offer mental health coverage to provide the same financial and treatment coverage offered for other illnesses.  It does not mandate that group plans must provide any mental health coverage.

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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on October 23 released a supplemental final rule on “no-match letters.” The supplemental final rule was published in the October 28 issue of the Federal Register. The supplemental final rule reaffirms the content of a final rule issued in August 2007, provides additional supporting analysis for that final rule, and corrects a typographical error in the rule. It makes no substantive changes.

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