Ensuring Mental Health Parity for a Compassionate Future
Founded in August 2024, the Mental Health Insurance Reform Task Force (MHIRTF) emerged in response to the mounting challenges mental health providers and clients face within the insurance system. As clinicians and practice owners, we saw how low reimbursement rates, clawbacks, and administrative barriers were limiting care for both clients and the professionals striving to serve them.
Clients are denied care.
Therapists are buried in red tape.
Together, we’re demanding change
OUR COMMITMENT
We know the system is complex, and that change takes time.
But together, we can help shape a future where mental health care is more accessible, more equitable, and more sustainable for everyone involved.
We began organizing with a shared goal: to better understand these systemic issues and take empowered, collaborative action toward a more mutually respectful model of care that honors clients, providers, and the sustainability of care systems as a whole.
OUR STORY
Our Mission
MHIRTF brings together licensed mental health providers and advocates committed to practical, values-driven reform. Our work is rooted in:
Expanding access to care
Securing fair, sustainable compensation for providers
Advancing transparency and accountability in insurance practices
Through listening, documentation, relationship-building, and legislative advocacy, we’re working to transform insight into action, and to ensure providers have a voice in shaping the systems they operate within.
The Mental Health Insurance Reform Task Force is dedicated to improving access and sustainability of behavioral healthcare in Kentucky and beyond.
What We’ve Done So Far
Since launching, we have:
Surveyed providers across Kentucky, confirming that low insurance reimbursement is the leading reason clinicians opt out of network, limiting access to care.
Created a formal provider petition to the Kentucky Department of Insurance, calling for transparency, parity enforcement, and fair pay Sign Here!
Held monthly Task Force meetings with providers from across Kentucky and beyond, serving as a collaborative hub for advocacy, connection, and training.
Met with legislators and the Kentucky DOI to elevate provider perspectives and explore legislative solutions.
Partnered with aligned advocacy groups, locally and nationally, to strengthen shared impact.
Drafted the Kentucky Mental Health Fairness Act (BR 427) to address systemic gaps in rate transparency, parity, and oversight.
Launched buildbetterhealth.org to gather real-life stories from clients and providers navigating insurance-related challenges.
Began developing a state-by-state strategy guide, mapping policy models and enforcement mechanisms to inform next steps.
Hosted in-person Provider Roundtables, throughout Kentucky featuring CEUs, dinner, and open discussion about what meaningful change could look like.
Ready to help? Do you have a personal story about challenges you’ve faced with insurance, or perhaps an idea for how to improve the system for everyone? We’d love to hear from you.
Share it with us.
*** Should you choose to include it, all personal identifying information will be redacted before being shared with the task force. These stories may be shared with policymakers and enforcers. ***