Premera Beats Suit Over Teenager’s $160,000 Mental Health Bill

Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska won’t have to pay for more than a year of around-the-clock care that a transgender teenager received at a mental health treatment facility in Utah, a federal judge in Seattle ruled.

The family of the teenager—referred to as Lillian R.—didn’t show that her stay at Elevations Residential Treatment Center was medically necessary under the terms of her health-care plan, Judge James L. Robart of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington ruled Monday.

Lillian’s reported urges to self-harm and her placement on one day of self-harm precautions were “troubling,” Robart ...