CHAMPAIGN — For some people, treatments for substance abuse would end too soon, when their insurance coverage limit was reached.

New Illinois legislation signed into law last week stands to change that, at least for some.

The new law (HB 1530) added treatment for substance abuse to the list of mental and behavioral health disorders that must now be covered by group health plans for more than 50 employees.

State law already required large group plans to cover treatments for serious mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder, depression and eating disorders under the same terms and conditions as they cover other illnesses.

The new law brought state requirements in line with federal law, for example, forbidding insurers from imposing lifetime or annual limits on mental health coverage if there aren't any such limits on other health treatments.

What the law didn't do was guarantee that everybody on an employer health plan gets mental health or substance abuse coverage.

Smaller group plans of two to 50 employees still aren't required to provide that coverage — but if they do, they must now provide it without imposing any additional barriers, treatment limits or extra costs beyond what they impose for other health treatments, according to Gov. Pat Quinn's spokeswoman Brie Callahan.

Sheila Ferguson, chief executive of Community Elements (formerly the Mental Health Center of Champaign County), said she hopes the change opens the door to more access to mental health treatment for people in the community.

"We have seen limitations on how many sessions people have been able to have approved in the past, so this is a very nice add to that," she said.

Bruce Suardini, chief executive of the Prairie Center, a not-for-profit substance abuse treatment center serving East Central Illinois, said he and others have been advocating for insurers to treat substance abuse treatment equally, like any other medical treatment, for about 15 years.

Up to this point, treatment of some patients has been hindered by their insurance coverage — for example, their plans might restrict them to 20 sessions. And an end to coverage effectively put a stop to their treatments, he said.

Now insurers won't be able to impose those kinds of limits, Suardini said.

"I think it opens the door for a lot more of the people who have been denied service or access to service when they didn't have it."

And nationally, there have been lots of people going without treatment, he said.

"There are 22 million people who need substance abuse treatment in the U.S., and less than 10 percent get services. The reason they don't get it is lack of ability to afford it," Suardini said.

When people don't get treatment, they continue in their disease. They lose their jobs and their income, and it affects everybody's total health care costs, he said.

"They show up in emergency rooms for detox," Suardini added. "They show up at our jails. They show up at our courtrooms. For lack of a safety net, they continue to suffer in their disease."

Urbana-based Health Alliance Medical Plans spokeswoman Jane Hayes said that company provides mental health coverage as a standard benefit to all its group plans, large or small.

Health Alliance is still studying the update in the parity law, Hayes said. However, she added, "because we meet the requirements of the federal law, we would likely be in compliance with this new Illinois requirement. It is effective upon enactment, but that effectively means upon plan year renewal."

Diane Zell, president of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Champaign County, said state and federal parity laws help people with insurance, but many people living with serious mental illnesses aren't covered by insurance because they don't have jobs that would provide them with insurance.

And a shortage of psychiatrists in the Champaign-Urbana area will still mean a wait for care, even for people with insurance, she said.

Ferguson said Community Elements has openings in outpatient therapy and counseling for people with private insurance and those on Medicaid. The organization also has some limited access for uninsured patients, she said.

However, Ferguson also said, there's a waiting list for psychiatry patients, with adults currently having to wait the longest for an appointment.