UnitedHealth Sued Over Substance Abuse Treatment Coverage (1)

A new lawsuit accuses UnitedHealth Group Inc. of mishandling and underpaying claims for substance abuse treatments and erecting unwarranted barriers to treatment in the midst of the “deadliest drug crisis in United States history.”

The proposed class action, filed July 11 in a federal court in California, alleges that UnitedHealth and various subsidiaries wrongly deny or limit coverage for substance abuse treatments in a number of ways.

The insurer is accused of refusing to authorize treatments at certain facilities; imposing treatment limits that violate federal mental health parity law; engaging in questionable billing tactics that effectively deny coverage; and refusing ...