Health your username February 1, 2021 On Friday in the District of Utah, Judge Ted Stewart denied United Behavioral Health (UBH) and Motion Picture Industry Health Plan for Active Participants’ motion to dismiss a claim by individual plaintiffs that alleged that the defendants violated the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (Parity Act) through coverage denial. The plaintiffs, a parent and a dependent, stated that UBH denied coverage of the dependent’s residential therapy treatment at Evoke Wilderness Program. The company claimed such programs are “experimental and unproven” and that the dependent was “not at risk,” of self-harm or harm to others, “was medically stable, was not experiencing withdrawal symptoms, was not under the care of a psychiatrist, and did not require 24-hour medical or psychiatric care,” the court explained. After the wilderness program, the dependent was admitted to Catalyst Residential Treatment, which the plaintiffs claimed was covered by UBH for about a month — from April 28, 2017, through May 26, 2017 — but then was denied until the dependent left on July 31, 2018. The plaintiffs submitted appeals that failed, and they ultimately resorted to filing a complaint alleging violations of the Employee Retirement income Security Act (ERISA) and the Parity Act. The defendants moved to dismiss the Parity Act cause of action for failure to state a claim, which the judge denies for the following reasons.