Bethlehem, Pa.-based St. Luke's University Health Network is facing a proposed class-action lawsuit that accuses the system of charging some unvaccinated employees more for health insurance, lehighvalleylive.com reported March 31.
St. Luke's raised each employee's insurance premium by $1,100 in January 2022, but offered a discount to offset that entire amount, according to the report. The suit alleges that while all vaccinated employees and unvaccinated employees with medical exemptions from the system's mandate received the discount, employees with religious exemptions did not.
A lawyer representing one of the employees said in a March 30 news release that the woman and about 500 of her colleagues were forced by the health system to "pay more for their group health insurance solely because their religious beliefs interfere with its ambitious vaccination campaign."
The health system told the news outlet in a statement that the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission previously reviewed the matter and did not find any violations. St. Luke's said the allegations in the lawsuit are without merit and it will "aggressively defend this matter."