United Patients Seek Hefty Fee Award in Coverage Guidelines Spat

Patients who’ve spent 12 years challenging United Behavioral Health’s internal guidelines for mental health coverage asked a California federal judge to award them up to nearly $33 million in attorneys’ fees and expenses.

The patients requested litigation expenses of more than $1.7 million, along with attorneys’ fees ranging between $26.7 million and $31.2 million—the latter figure representing “full compensation” for time expended on the case’s two key claims. The patients’ attorneys “pioneered a rare and important ERISA case” that will benefit “all Americans who utilize commercial health insurance,” and they spent more than 35,000 hours and about $2 million ...