United Healthcare Settles Proton Beam Cancer Care Coverage Suits

United Healthcare Insurance Co. struck a deal to resolve three proposed class actions saying it wrongly refused to cover a cancer treatment patients say is more effective—but more expensive—than traditional radiation.

The parties have reached a “full and complete settlement” and plan to submit details of the deal for court approval by mid-April, they said in a notice filed Tuesday in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

The lawsuits were filed in 2019 by three health plan participants who each paid tens of thousands of dollars out-of-pocket for proton beam radiation therapy. They say United systematically denied ...