Blue Cross Beats Mental Health Care Suit Despite Judge’s Lament

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois validly declined to cover a $165,000 medical bill for a child’s stay at a residential mental health treatment center that didn’t provide 24-hour onsite nursing care, a federal judge ruled.

Blue Cross applies the same 24-hour nursing requirement for coverage at both mental health treatment centers and skilled nursing facilities, which is fatal to the family’s claim under the federal law requiring insurers to cover mental health care on the same terms that they cover medical and surgical care, Judge Mary M. Rowland said Tuesday. That’s true despite the family’s argument that the requirement ...