States fight back after United Behavioral Health gets coverage denial lawsuit tossed

(Photo: Jim Mone/AP)

Since 2019, states have been in a back-and-forth dispute with behavioral health provider United Behavioral Health, a subsidiary of health insurer UnitedHealth Group, to determine whether the insurer inappropriately denied coverage to subscribers. In the latest update on the case, last week, 15 state attorneys general, along with the attorney general of Washington D.C., requested a review of a recent ruling that suggested that UBH did inappropriately deny subscribers coverage, but that subscribers would not be able to get their claims re-processed, according to the Providence Business News.

The saga began in 2019, when a court ruling in the case Wit v. United Behavorial Health (UBH) determined that United Behavioral Health had unfairly denied coverage of treatment to subscribers. Instead of following state criteria to determine whether a patient was eligible for treatment coverage, UBH applied a more limited set of guidelines, the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office said in a press release.