{"id":8444,"date":"2022-08-12T09:26:06","date_gmt":"2022-08-12T14:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bbrown.com\/insight\/health-plan-exclusions-for-gender-dysphoria-and-transgender-treatments\/"},"modified":"2022-08-12T09:26:06","modified_gmt":"2022-08-12T14:26:06","slug":"health-plan-exclusions-for-gender-dysphoria-and-transgender-treatments","status":"publish","type":"insight","link":"https:\/\/www.bbrown.com\/ca\/insight\/health-plan-exclusions-for-gender-dysphoria-and-transgender-treatments\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent Court Decisions Raise Concerns About Health Plan Exclusions for Gender Dysphoria and Transgender Treatments"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><p>[vc_row row_style=&#8221;page-hero&#8221; full_width=&#8221;stretch_row_content&#8221;][vc_column]\n\t<div class=\"hero hero--wrap    \">\n\n\t\t<div class=\"hero--background-image hero--background-image-blur\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"hero--overlay\"><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"hero-background\" style=\"background: url(https:\/\/www.bbrown.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/pexels-sobia-akhtar-5652364-scaled.jpg) center center no-repeat; background-size: cover;\"><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t<div class=\"hero--container\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"hero--inner width-100\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n  <div class='content-heading  100%  '>\n    <p class='text-white subheading'>Employee Benefits<\/p>\n    <h1 class='text-white    '>\n      Recent Court Decisions Raise Concerns About Health Plan Exclusions for Gender Dysphoria and Transgender Treatments\n    <\/h1>\n\t\n  <\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=&#8221;2\/3&#8243;]\n  <div class='content-heading  100% content-heading--ruled '>\n    \n    <h1 class='text-brand-dark-blue    h2'>\n      Recent Court Decisions Raise Concerns About Health Plan Exclusions for Gender Dysphoria and Transgender Treatments\n    <\/h1>\n\t\n  <\/div>[vc_column_text]Recently, two federal district courts decided cases<sup>1<\/sup> that raise questions regarding the ability of group health plans to exclude coverage for medically necessary gender dysphoria-related care and sex change operations. In both cases, the federal district court granted an employee\u2019s motion for summary judgment on a claim asserting that an employer\u2019s health plan violated federal law by including an exclusion for certain gender dysphoria and transgender treatments. Both courts relied on the Supreme Court\u2019s decision in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/19pdf\/17-1618_hfci.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bostock v. Clayton County<\/a><sup>2<\/sup>,\u00a0applying the rationale of that holding to benefits provided under an employer\u2019s group health plan (which were considered part of the employee\u2019s compensation or privileges of employment).<sup>3<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>In light of these recent decisions, employers subject to the jurisdiction of the federal courts in the Middle District of Georgia and the Middle District of North Carolina should examine their health plans to determine whether they have exclusions for certain medical treatments or procedures when prescribed for gender dysphoria or to accomplish a sex change or modification. If so, the employer should consult with its legal counsel regarding the risks of retaining such an exclusion in the health plan in light of the recent court decisions referenced above. Employers outside of these jurisdictions that sponsor health plans containing these types of exclusions should also consult with their legal counsel. While it remains to be seen whether other courts will reach similar decisions, the presence of these types of exclusions may increase the risk of litigation due to the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling in Bostock and could potentially impact the outcome of such litigation.[\/vc_column_text]\t<div class='wpb_content_element text-left btn-container'>\n\t\t\t\t\t<a class='btn btn-brand-green  '\n\t\t\t\thref='https:\/\/www.bbrown.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Recent-Court-Decisions-Raise-Concerns-About-Health-Plan-Exclusions-for-Gender-Dysphoria-Brown-Brown_WEB.pdf' target='_blank' data-toggle=''>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"btn-text-color--default\">Download PDF<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n[vc_column_text]<em><sup>1 <\/sup>See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.govinfo.gov\/content\/pkg\/USCOURTS-gamd-5_19-cv-00392\/pdf\/USCOURTS-gamd-5_19-cv-00392-3.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lange v. Houston County, Georgia<\/a> (decided by the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.govinfo.gov\/content\/pkg\/USCOURTS-ncmd-1_19-cv-00272\/pdf\/USCOURTS-ncmd-1_19-cv-00272-3.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kadel v. Fowell<\/a> (deciding by the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina).<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><sup>2 <\/sup>In this 2020 decision regarding Title VII employment discrimination protections, the Supreme Court ruled that because an employee\u2019s sex is a necessary element in making employment decisions based on an employee\u2019s sexual orientation or transgender status, \u201c[a]n employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender defies the law.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><sup>3 <\/sup>Both cases also involved claims under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which generally prohibits governmental entities from denying \u201cto any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.\u201d<\/em>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;1390&#8243; alignment=&#8221;center&#8221; style=&#8221;vc_box_circle_2&#8243;][vc_separator border_width=&#8221;2&#8243; el_width=&#8221;60&#8243;][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h6 style=\"text-align: center;\">Regulatory and Legislative Strategy Group<\/h6>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text]\t<div class='wpb_content_element text-center btn-container'>\n\t\t\t\t\t<a class='btn btn-brand-dark-blue  '\n\t\t\t\thref='\/us\/contact\/contact-general\/' target='' data-toggle=''>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"btn-text-color--default\">Connect Now<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n[\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row row_style=&#8221;page-hero&#8221; full_width=&#8221;stretch_row_content&#8221;][vc_column][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=&#8221;2\/3&#8243;][vc_column_text]Recently, two federal district courts decided cases1 that raise questions regarding the ability of group health plans to exclude coverage for medically necessary gender dysphoria-related care and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":8445,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"insight_category":[31,73],"class_list":["post-8444","insight","type-insight","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","insight_category-employee-benefits","insight_category-regulatory-and-legislative-strategy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.0 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Recent Court Decisions Raise Concerns About Health Plan Exclusions for Gender Dysphoria and Transgender Treatments - Brown &amp; Brown<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbrown.com\/ca\/insight\/health-plan-exclusions-for-gender-dysphoria-and-transgender-treatments\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Recent Court Decisions Raise Concerns About Health Plan Exclusions for Gender Dysphoria and Transgender Treatments\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[vc_row row_style=&#8221;page-hero&#8221; full_width=&#8221;stretch_row_content&#8221;][vc_column][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=&#8221;2\/3&#8243;][vc_column_text]Recently, two federal district courts decided cases1 that raise questions regarding the ability of group health plans to exclude coverage for medically necessary gender dysphoria-related care and [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bbrown.com\/ca\/insight\/health-plan-exclusions-for-gender-dysphoria-and-transgender-treatments\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Brown &amp; 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