FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Duke Rodriguez 480-246-5700

June 13, 2022 duke@ultrahealth.com

CANNABIS FIRM JOINS PATIENTS IN BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CLASS-ACTION LAWSUIT

Action seeks to force health insurers to provide full coverage for medical cannabis

(Albuquerque) – A group of medical cannabis patients, joined by Ultra Health, New Mexico’s #1
Cannabis Company, has filed a class-action lawsuit which could revolutionize medical coverage
in New Mexico. The lawsuit, which is believed to be the first of its kind in the United States,
seeks to force health insurers to pay for medical cannabis used by patients to treat behavioral
health conditions.

According to the lawsuit, the “individual Plaintiffs seek recovery for themselves, and for every
other similarly situated behavioral or mental health patient unlawfully subjected to paying for the
entire cost of medically necessary cannabis, in violation of state law.” Qualified patients should
no longer have any out-of-pocket costs or cost sharing, including copays, deductibles or
coinsurance.

A unique confluence of factors has enabled this push to secure insurance payments for medical
cannabis. In 2021, New Mexico adopted into law several Behavioral Health Services Equity
statutes, all of which provide that any New Mexico health insurance plan that offers coverage for
“behavioral health services shall not impose cost sharing on those behavioral health services.”

New Mexico also has judicial decisions on the books recognizing that medical cannabis obtained
from a licensed cannabis provider is the “functional equivalent of a prescription” and that
medical cannabis is eligible for the same gross receipts tax deduction as prescription drugs.

Many health practitioners and cannabis patients know that medical cannabis can be an effective
treatment for behavioral health conditions. In fact, close to 55% of New Mexico’s medical
cannabis patients qualify for the program via a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder—a
condition specifically targeted by the Behavioral Health Services Equity statutes. The
class-action lawsuit seeks to have a court recognize what practitioners and patients have
acknowledged for years: medical cannabis is behavioral healthcare.
In February 2022, Ultra Health raised the issue of insurance payments in direct communications
to both New Mexico health insurers and the Office of the Superintendent of Insurance. Ultra
Health requested insurers recognize their statutory duty to patients and also offered cooperation
in building a system for efficient processing of insurers’ medical cannabis payments. However,
the insurers and the Superintendent of Insurance have yet to act upon the demand that insurance
pay for medical cannabis used to treat behavioral health conditions, thus necessitating litigation.
The lawsuit could not come soon enough for many patients. Currently, medical cannabis patients
pay out-of-pocket for their cannabis, and they are feeling those pockets squeezed ever tighter by
higher prices for food, gas, and shelter. At the same time, traditional behavioral health
resources—like counseling, psychiatric monitoring, and inpatient treatment—are becoming
harder and harder to find.
Furthermore, many conventional pharmaceuticals used to treat behavioral health conditions have
limited efficacy and can cause unmanageable side effects. The lack of effective, accessible
traditional behavioral health resources in New Mexico means that for many suffering people,
medical cannabis is the only treatment holding their lives together.
“The idea of health insurance plans paying for medical cannabis may seem like an impossible
dream, but all the foundational elements have already fallen into place,” said Duke Rodriguez,
CEO & President of Ultra Health®. “Revolutionizing behavioral healthcare in New Mexico will
take only a few small steps, rather than a giant leap.”

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Ultra Health is New Mexico’s #1 Cannabis Company and the largest minority-owned cannabis
company in the United States. The vertically-integrated provider currently operates 33
dispensary locations statewide, with another 10 stores slated to be open by the end of the second
quarter of 2022. Ultra Health provides unparalleled medical cannabis care by producing
accurately dosed, smokeless cannabis products such as sublingual tablets, oils, pastilles,
suppositories and more through its partnership with Israeli pharmaceutical group Panaxia. Ultra
Health has been at the forefront of patient-rights issues and continues to fight for adequate
supply and rural access in the New Mexico cannabis market.