Blue Cross California Defeats $50,000 Wilderness Therapy Suit

Blue Cross of California validly denied a family’s claim for coverage of a child’s $50,000 mental health treatments at a wilderness therapy facility, a federal judge ruled.

The family’s health-care plan limits mental health coverage to treatments at accredited facilities, and it’s not clear Open Sky Wilderness Therapy satisfied that requirement, Judge Beth Labson Freeman of the US District Court for the Northern District of California said Monday, dismissing claims for wrongfully denied benefits under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

• Freeman also dismissed the family’s claim for violations of the federal mental health parity law, but she gave them ...