United Behavioral Health Sued Over Autism Treatment Coverage

On November 7, 2019, the family of a child with autism filed a class action lawsuit against United Behavioral Health (UBH) over autism treatment coverage. The lawsuit alleged that UBH blocked access to applied behavior analysis (ABA) in violation of the federal Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). The child is covered under an employer-sponsored, self-funded health plan with behavioral health benefits administered by UBH. The plaintiffs asked the court to force UBH to reprocess the child’s claims for ABA, as well as claims of . . .