UnitedHealth Group Inc. headquarters stands in Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S., on March 9, 2016. Photo: Mike Bradley/Bloomberg

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."

The latest class action complaint, filed Wednesday also before Spero, seeks to compensate health care providers that treated UBH patients whose claims were denied using the guidelines, which the insurer changed Jan. 31 following litigation. The class is made up of licensed health care clinicians including Meridian Healthcare in Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, Florida, iRecover Treatment Inc. in Palm Desert, California, and Harmony Hollywood Treatment Center in Los Angeles. The mental health specialists assert that they offered medically necessary treatment to patients meeting generally accepted criteria but those claims were denied under UBH's former guidelines.

Although the ruling aimed to address the harm caused to patients who were able to pay for their treatment out of pocket, it did nothing to rectify the harm done to unpaid health care providers, according to the complaint. "The Plaintiffs and Plaintiff Class in this action seek redress in the form of reprocessing for what is likely billions of dollars in wrongfully denied claims," wrote Jennifer Liakos and Matthew Lavin of Napoli Shkolnik in Los Angeles, who were not involved in the patient suit. "All the while, UBH, UnitedHealth Group and its subsidiaries profited and pocketed premiums while those actually seeking help, often at some of the lowest, most desperate times of their life, were denied it by those tasked with ensuring their insureds received medically necessary care."

Unlike the class action that Spero previously ruled on, where patients fronted the costs of care themselves when UBH denied their claims, more often the company's guidelines strapped the healthcare providers with the financial burden of their services when clients were unable to pay, according to the complaint. Plaintiff Harmony Hollywood treatment center claims it racked up $2,516,303 from 92 UBH patients who were denied coverage.

The lawsuit bring claims of unfair business practices, breach of covenant of good faith and fair dealing, breach of implied contract and five other causes of action against UBH. The health care providers are seeking putative and injunctive damages.

UnitedHealthcare and Napoli's Liakos did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.