The federal and California labor departments are urging a federal appeals court to uphold a court order against UnitedHealth Group that requires the payer to reprocess 67,000 claims after it denied mental health and substance abuse coverage to members, according to Reuters May 20.
Other health groups supporting the case are the American Psychiatric Association, American Medical Association, National Health Law Program and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Plaintiffs sued United Behavioral Health, a unit of UnitedHealth Group, in 2014 for using mental health and substance abuse coverage guidelines that did not reflect acceptable standards of care, the article said.
In 2019, a California judge ruled United Behavioral Health's guidelines for coverage "placed an excessive emphasis on addressing acute symptoms and stabilizing crises while ignoring the effective treatment of members' underlying conditions."
The US secretary of labor filed three amicus briefs Wednesday in response to United Behavioral Health's appeal of the decision, stating that the patients were injured by being deprived of their contractual rights, the article said.