Rehear ‘Most Important ERISA Case’ of Century, Patients Plead

Patients accusing United Behavioral Health of using faulty internal guidelines to limit mental health coverage asked the Ninth Circuit to rethink its recent decision largely siding with the insurer, saying the “disastrous” ruling creates multiple circuit splits.

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s January decision blocking patients from seeking “reprocessing” of their benefit claims by United creates a split with “every other circuit,” because reprocessing is “the central remedy in cases where the administrator applied the wrong standard in denying benefits,” the patients said in a March 10 petition for rehearing.

The appeals court’s decision ...