Complaints filed against Huntington, W.Va.-based St. Mary's Medical Center and Morgantown, W.Va.-based Mon General Hospital allege both faith-based hospitals refused to provide health insurance to employees' same-sex spouses, according to the Charleston Gazette-Mail.
Jodi Dutey, a nurse at St. Mary's, filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in May 2015. According to the complaint, Ms. Dutey asked the hospital's benefit coordinator to add her wife to her insurance plan. The coordinator allegedly refused to grant Ms. Dutey's request and showed her a copy of a policy stating that eligible spouses were defined as people of the opposite gender. St. Mary's is a Catholic-based organization. The EEOC has yet to make a decision on the case.
In a complaint filed against Mon General in March 2015, Kathy McIntire, a clinical coordinator in the pharmacy department, approached the hospital's human resources department in September 2013, inquiring about adding her partner to her insurance plan. An HR representative allegedly told Ms. McIntire she could not add her wife to her benefit plan. The complaint states that the couple would have had to spend an extra $65 a month to add Ms. McIntire's wife to the plan. In November 2015, the director of the Pittsburgh office of the EEOC sent Ms. McIntire and Mon General a letter stating that the hospital had violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by discriminating against Ms. McIntire's wife based on sex, according to the letter.
The legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia said the McIntires and Mon General are nearing a settlement, according to the article.
Lori Savitch, the marketing director for Mon General, declined West Virginia Gazette's request for comment.