Cite as: 526 U. S. 40 (1999)
Opinion of the Court
cal benefits, they compromise an employee's [s]tate-created entitlements. The insurers have no power to deprive or terminate such benefits without the permission and participation of the [State]. More importantly, however, the [State] is intimately involved in any decision by an insurer to terminate an employee's constitutionally protected benefits because an insurer cannot suspend medical payments without first obtaining authorization from the Bureau. However this authorization may be characterized, any deprivation that occurs is predicated upon the State's involvement." Id., at 168.
On the due process issue, the Court of Appeals did not address whether respondents have a protected property interest in workers' compensation medical benefits, stating that "[n]either party disputes" this point. Id., at 171, n. 23. Thus focusing on what process is "due," the court held that payment of bills may not be withheld until employees have had an opportunity to submit their view in writing as to the reasonableness and necessity of the disputed treatment to the URO. The court then determined that the relevant statutory language permitting the suspension of payment during utilization review was severable and struck it from the statute. Id., at 173-174.
We granted certiorari, 524 U. S. 981 (1998), to resolve a conflict on the status of private insurers providing workers' compensation coverage under state laws,7 and to review the Court of Appeals' holding that due process prohibits insurers from withholding payment for disputed medical treatment pending review.
II
To state a claim for relief in an action brought under § 1983, respondents must establish that they were deprived of a right secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States, and that the alleged deprivation was committed
7 Cf. Barnes v. Lehman, 861 F. 2d 1383 (CA5 1988).
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