Minnesota-based health insurer ordered into court supervision for mental health coverage denials

A federal judge in California has ordered United Behavioral Health into court-monitored supervision after ruling the health insurance company improperly denied mental health treatment claims to thousands of patients, according to a federal, class-action lawsuit.

UnitedHealth Group, the Minnesota-based parent company of UBH, will be required to re-train its employees and reprocess more than 67,000 mental health and substance use disorder treatment claims.

A special court-appointed master will monitor the company over the next 10 years, the November ruling from Chief Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero said.

This comes after a landmark ruling in the mental health parity case. In 2019, Judge Spero found UnitedHealth Group liable for wrongfully denying coverage, stating the insurer used its own internal guidelines that were "tainted by… financial interests…" and benefited the company financially.

"I can’t think of another case, another recent case, where a managed behavioral health organization was essentially found of such pervasive misconduct," said attorney Meiram Bendat of Psych Appeal, the California-based law firm leading the class-action.

Bendat called this a watershed moment that exposes a loophole in the federal mental health parity law and said that the decision should serve as a stern warning to other health insurance companies.

"UBH is not the only company that engages in these kinds of practices," he said.

In 2019, 5 INVESTIGATES found families in Minnesota fighting mental treatment denials from other insurers, according to medical, state and court records.

RELATED: Wrongfully Denied: Minnesotans fighting mental illness denied coverage from insurance providers

"I believe that any insurer looking at this case is going to be well served to re-evaluate its conduct," Bendat said.

Dee Dee Tillitt, who lives in Minneapolis, joined the class-action lawsuit as a named plaintiff after her son, Max, died of an overdose.

After being arrested in 2015, a judge ordered Max into treatment for heroin addiction. Tillitt says her son spent 20 days at Beauterre Recovery Institute in Owatonna until United Healthcare cut funding for Max’s treatment.

"You don’t have to be a clinician to know 20 days of in-patient is not enough to cure a three-year heroin habit," Tillitt said in a recent interview.

Tillitt said she was thrilled with the court’s ruling.

"We basically got everything we were seeking," she said. "Having a special master in there watching them, they won’t be able to slip back into doing the bad practices."

In a statement to 5 INVESTIGATES, a UnitedHealth Group spokesperson said the company has taken "concrete steps to improve access to quality care," that includes expanding its provider network and increasing access to telehealth.

"We are focused on ensuring our members get the quality, compassionate care they need, and will continue working closely with people across the behavioral health community on this important issue," the statement read.

Glancing at a photograph of Max on her fireplace mantle, Tillitt thinks what he would say about the ruling.

"Oh, he would love this," she said. "Max always wanted to help people. I didn’t want any other family to go through what I went through."