Improving Access to Psychotherapy: Implications of Wit Versus United Behavioral Health

This column summarizes the verdict in the federal class action known as Wit v United Behavioral Health (UBH)/Optum, highlighting the verdict's implications for increasing access to care, implementing the mental health parity law, and reducing health disparities. Achieving these results requires recognition of the verdict as more than simply a nice news story, but as a decision that actually offers individual clinicians, their professional organizations, as well as patients, families, and their consumer organizations, a powerful tool for implementing change if they take up the task of learning how to use it. The verdict applies to outpatient treatment, including psychotherapy, along with 2 other levels of care: intensive outpatient programs and residential treatment.