St. Luke’s University Health Network faces a federal class action lawsuit alleging it charged only employees with religious exemptions from its COVID-19 vaccine mandate an extra $1,100 per year for their group medical insurance over the past 15 months.

The Allentown-based Mansour Law firm filed the complaint this week in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on behalf of lead plaintiff. Jessica Jennings.

According to the complaint, Jennings is one of about 500 SLUHN employees who received a religious exemption from the network’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

“In our view, this case is pretty straightforward,” attorney William Mansour said in a news release issued Thursday. “St. Luke’s has forced my client and roughly 500 of her colleagues to pay more for their group health insurance solely because their religious beliefs interfere with its ambitious vaccination campaign. If Ms. Jennings had different religious beliefs that didn’t conflict with vaccination, St. Luke’s would have rewarded her with a premium discount. But because she doesn’t subscribe to the company’s preferred religious beliefs, she got punished with a premium hike instead.”

St. Luke’s spokesperson Samuel Kennedy said Friday that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission already reviewed the matter and did not find any violation of law.

“The allegations by Ms. Jennings are without merit, and St. Luke’s will aggressively defend this matter,” Kennedy said. “Throughout the pandemic, St. Luke’s has undertaken heroic measures to protect its employees, patients and community. St. Luke’s will continue to support vaccination efforts and other safeguards necessary to keep our community safe.”

Lawsuit details

In October 2021, Mansour said, St. Luke’s instituted a policy supposedly increasing every employee’s group health insurance premium by $1,100 starting in January 2022. The network told employees the increase was necessitated by more than $3.5 million in expenses over the past 18 months associated with COVID-related hospital care. According to the lawsuit, the network said a majority of the cost is attributed to “caring for and treating our unvaccinated employees and their family members.”

But under the policy, Mansour said, all vaccinated employees and unvaccinated employees with medical exemptions or deferrals from St. Luke’s vaccine mandate received a $1,100 “premium discount” to offset the increase entirely. Unvaccinated employees with religious exemptions from the mandate, he alleges, received no discount.

Jennings and her colleagues with religious exemptions have paid an additional $42.31 per bi-weekly pay period over their 2021 health insurance rate, Mansour said.

“St. Luke’s essentially gave my client and her colleagues a false choice: either pay more for your health coverage during a period of record inflation or violate your sincere religious beliefs and get vaccinated,” he said. “We don’t think St. Luke’s can legally do that, and we’re going to find out why it did.”

Jennings is alleging violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act.

The lawsuit seeks to permanently enjoin St. Luke’s enforcement of the “premium discount” policy and obtain restitution for all affected employees, plus interest, compensatory damages, punitive damages, attorney’s fees, costs, and other appropriate relief.