A federal district court rebuffed putative class claims alleging
that Cigna Health and Life Insurance Co. and two of the plans it
administered violated the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity
Act of 2008 ("MHPAEA") by denying coverage for wilderness
therapy. S.F. v. CIGNA Health & Life Ins. Co.,
2024 WL 1912359 (D. Utah May 1, 2024).
Cigna, the third-party administrator for the two
employer-sponsored plans at issue, denied coverage for certain
treatment provided through wilderness therapy programs on the
ground that they fell within the plans' exclusions of
"experimental, investigational, and unproven services."
Plan participants filed a putative class action against Cigna and
the plans, claiming, among other things, that the coverage denials
violated MHPAEA based on plaintiffs' allegations that the plans
would not deny coverage for treatment provided in analogous
medical/surgical settings, such as skilled nursing facilities or
similar inpatient treatment