The Trump administration said its nonenforcement policy of the 2024 Biden-era parity rule is part of its larger Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative to deregulate business.

Late Thursday, the U.S. Departments of Labor, Treasury and Health and Human Services said in a joint statement that they would not enforce the latest parity rule until 18 months after the resolution of the pending lawsuit challenging the rule. Both the existing federal parity law and the previous 2013 parity rule are still in effect, according to the statement.

“HHS encourages states that are the primary enforcers of [parity law] with respect to issuers to adopt a similar approach to enforcement,” the statement reads. “HHS will not consider a state to be failing to substantially enforce [parity law], as amended, because the state adopts such an approach.”

The departments see the rule as falling under the executive order that President Donald Trump signed in February directing agency leaders to work with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to review regulations and undo any that “[impose] undue burdens on small businesses or significant costs upon private parties that are not outweighed by public benefits. 

“In such cases, federal agencies must exercise enforcement discretion to ensure lawful governance,” the statement reads. “It also states that the agencies will commit to ensuring that health plan members are protected as dictated by law but do so in a way that is not “unduly burdensome for plans and issuers.”

It also reiterates that the Trump administration will reconsider the 2024 final rule and potentially issue a new rulemaking process that could modify or rescind it.

The federal government first revealed its intent to potentially redo parity law enforcement in its delayed response to a health insurance industry group’s challenge of the Biden-era parity rule. The ERISA Industry Committee, better known as ERIC, filed its legal challenge on Jan. 17, days before the inauguration.

In September 2024, the Biden administration finalized a parity enforcement rule that updated how health plans assess, document, compare, report, and resolve issues with parity between behavioral health and physical health limitations that aren’t tied to numeric measures like session or dollar amounts.

While widely praised by the behavioral health industry, its impact, if implemented, would not have been immediate or dramatic. Rather, it would have helped resolve questions about the enforcement of parity laws.