Meiram Bendat is an attorney, as well as a psychotherapist, and founder of Psych-Appeal. With a background in law, clinical psychology, marriage and family therapy, and psychoanalysis, he serves as a consultant to national mental health advocacy organizations and frequently presents on access to treatment and mental health parity. He authored California’s pioneering mental health parity law, SB855, which has served as model legislation throughout the country. Meiram is a member of the American Psychoanalytic Association Advocacy Committee and a distinguished Ittleson Consultant to the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry. He has testified in Congress and state legislatures and lectured at universities around the country, including at Yale Medical School and Butler Hospital (Brown University). He has been interviewed in the press and has published widely. Most recently, along with the Coalition for Psychotherapy Parity, he co-authored Clinical Necessity Guidelines for Psychotherapy, Insurance Medical Necessity and Utilization Review Protocols and Mental Health Parity.
NOTABLE REPRESENTATIONS
Class actions challenging health insurers’ mental health and/or substance use criteria for “medical necessity”:
Residential Treatment
*Wit v. United Behavioral Health
*Jones v. United Behavioral Health
*Collins v. Anthem, Inc.
*Des Roches v. California Physicians’ Service d/b/a Blue Shield of California
*Seger v. Health Care Service Corporation
Intensive Outpatient Treatment
*Alexander v. United Behavioral Health
*Des Roches v. California Physicians’ Service d/b/a Blue Shield of California
Class actions challenging insurers’ categorical coverage exclusions:
Mental health residential treatment
*Craft v. Health Care Service Corporation
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
*Meidl v. Aetna
*Weil v. Cigna
Applied Behavioral Analysis
*Doe v. United Behavioral Health (converted to individual action)
Class actions challenging insurers’ reimbursement policies:
Psychologists and master’s level clinician fees
*Smith v. UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company
*Doe v. Oxford Health Insurance
Facility-based fees
*Doe v. Intermountain Healthcare
Cases challenging claims administrators as proper defendants in mental health parity cases:
*Doe v. United Behavioral Health
*New York State Psychiatric Association, Inc. v. UnitedHealthGroup, Inc.
Mandamus petitions against governmental entities:
*Evolve Growth Initiatives LLC v. California Department of Managed Health Care
PUBLIC SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
National Union of Healthcare Workers, April and September 2024
ERISA Advisory Council, United States Department of Labor, July 2024
California Senate Select Committee on Mental Heath and Addiction, October 2023
National Association for Behavioral Healthcare, 2015-2024
The Kennedy Forum, 2015-2023
Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, 2013-2023
The Austen Riggs Center, 2016-2023
United States Congress, 2021
Illinois Senate Behavioral and Mental Health Committee and House Mental Health and Addiction Committee, 2021
United States Department of Labor, 2020
California Assembly, 2020
California Senate, 2020
American Medical Association, 2020
American Psychiatric Association, 2017-2019
National Council for Behavioral Health, 2014, 2016, 2017
Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis, 2017
Healthcare Association of New York State, 2016
Butler Hospital (Brown University), 2016
Yale Medical School, 2015
International Society for Neurofeedback and Research, 2013
Access Coalition, 2013
