A new class action lawsuit is seeking to force UnitedHealthcare to reprocess claims that were denied from a mental health subsidiary of the nation’s largest health insurer. The lawsuit comes after a federal judge ruled earlier this year that United Behavioral Health’s coverage determinations were based on “cost-cutting” and “addressing acute symptoms,” ignoring patients’ broader addiction and mental illnesses.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a 106-page ruling in March calling the processes United Behavioral Health used to assess coverage “harmful and illegal.” In the earlier case, brought on behalf of patients and their families, Spero said the health insurance company’s strategy valued the bottom line over the interests of its plan members, which lead to “a significantly narrower scope of coverage than is consistent with generally accepted standards of care.”

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