AXIOS
An Illinois-based Catholic hospital network will only cover fertility treatments for employees in opposite-sex marriages, Bloomberg Law first reported.
OSF HealthCare limited its definition of fertility for coverage to “the inability for a married couple of opposite-sex spouses to conceive,” per documents obtained by Bloomberg Law.
The coverage seeks to assist “married opposite-sex spouses” trying to have a child, per the new definition.
The hospital chain employs more than 24,000 people at 15 hospitals and 132 other facilities.
A spokesperson for OSF HealthCare said:
“The employee benefits we provide are driven by the OSF Mission and are in full compliance with the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services as well as state and federal laws, including the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act.”
Representatives from BlueCross/BlueShield of Illinois did not immediately return an Axios request for comment.
Some lawyers are saying that the new OSF coverage policy, which explicitly denies employees coverage based on their sexual orientation violates federal discrimination laws.
Peter Romer-Friedman, an attorney at Gupta Wessler PLLC, said that the policy is a “pretty clear violation” of federal workplace discrimination law …
