UnitedHealth’s SCOTUS Bid Backed by Labor Department Critics

A decision forcing United Behavioral Health to pay $130,000 for a teenager’s mental health treatments should be reviewed by the US Supreme Court because it improperly created new regulatory requirements for health benefit denials, according to a new amicus brief.

The brief, filed Tuesday by the ERISA Industry Committee and the US Chamber of Commerce, asks the justices to review a Tenth Circuit decision rejecting United’s denial of coverage and ruling that the insurer failed to properly engage with medical evidence from the teenager’s treating physicians.

This was an improper expansion of the federal regulations governing claims for health ...