Case: Health Care & Benefits/Benefits Denial (D. Utah)

The District of Utah granted in part and denied in part Aetna Life Insurance Company, The MITRE Corporation, and Aetna Flex Care PPO Plan’s motion to dismiss an employee’s ERISA and Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act action challenging the denial of payment for a beneficiary’s therapeutic outdoor treatment program. The court said that the employee adequately pleaded a facial challenge under the Parity Act, but rejected the employee’s request for treatment because, as a non-person, the treatment program can’t be a health professional under the terms of the plan.