One-quarter of the health plans being sold on health insurance exchanges set up through the Affordable Care Act offer benefits that appear to violate the federal parity act, according to new research announced by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  The study analyzed whether information available to consumers shopping on two unnamed state health insurance exchanges appeared consistent with the federal parity law. The findings are published in the March 2 Psychiatric Services.  On the smaller state’s exchange, more than half of the plans appeared to violate the parity law, with most of the inconsistencies related to prior authorization requirements.  While more plans in the larger state appeared compliant with parity laws, some benefit brochures included different cost sharing for general and behavioral health services. One of the study authors, Colleen Barry, Ph.D., suggests there is a need to better regulate what is being offered to potential enrollees.