Raytheon Health Plan Speech Therapy Suit Revived on Appeal (1)

A family accusing Raytheon Co. of wrongly failing to cover speech therapy in its health plan saw its case revived Monday in a First Circuit opinion considering the intersection between federal benefits and mental health parity law.

The lawsuit challenges Raytheon’s alleged practice of covering restorative speech therapy for people who lost verbal communication abilities, but not non-restorative therapy for people who never developed that ability in the first place. A Raytheon employee whose 5-year-old child, N.R., received the latter treatment claims this distinction is an impermissible coverage restriction under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, the federal ...