An attorney with a background in mental health, Meiram Bendat offers clients a comprehensive set of skills and knowledge unique in the field of health law. After representing children and families in the Los Angeles child welfare system and treating patients, he founded Psych-Appeal, the country's first private mental health insurance law firm in 2011. Since then, Dr. Bendat has helped patients and providers successfully challenge denials of mental health treatment through administrative appeals and impact litigation, recovering millions of dollars in wrongly withheld benefits. Dr. Bendat is an attorney licensed by the State Bar of California as well as a psychotherapist licensed by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. With a background in law, clinical psychology, marriage and family therapy, and psychoanalysis, he has served as a consultant to various mental health organizations and frequently presents on patient advocacy, access to treatment, and mental health parity. He is a member of the American Psychoanalytic Association Committee on Government Relations and has served as a distinguished Ittleson Consultant to the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry. He has also taught at Antioch University, UCLA, and the New Center for Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles. Dr. Bendat has been interviewed by The New York Times , Forbes , Psychiatric News, and other media outlets. In collaboration with the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, he recently authored, "In Name Only? Mental Health Parity or Illusory Reform." The article was published in a special issue of the Journal of Psychodynamic Psychiatry devoted to the impact of mental health parity and the Affordable Care Act.