With over an estimated 11 million Americans, mostly young women, suffering from eating disorders (most commonly anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa), California health insurers got their wake up call.  Everyone is watching  “the consequences of a major decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which ruled in August that insurers in California must pay for residential treatment for eating disorders and other serious mental illnesses under the state’s mental health parity law.”

According to statistics, anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa have the highest fatality rates of any psychiatric disorder. Sometimes, the longer stay in a rehab type facility is the best treatment and can help the recovery of these patients, however, the problem is there are no long range research statistics to back up the premise. Read more in the NY Times article, “Eating Disorders a New Front in Insurance Fight.”