THE POWER OF ASSOCIATION
UNITED TO:
Protect the right of Catholic employers
Optimize the Catholic employment experience
Provide access to cost effective Catholic benefits
Lifting our voice. Heeding the call.
Here We Go Again: HHS’ New War on Religious Freedom
At the time of Xavier Becerra’s confirmation, the Register warned his appointment as secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) posed a grave threat to the religious freedom of believers. We based that warning on a sober assessment of his disastrous political record in California, where he earned the notoriety of being possibly the most flagrant dissenter on abortion and “LGBT” issues of any Catholic in American public life.
HHS Plans New Rule to Mandate Health-Care Providers Comply With Abortion and Gender-Transition Agendas, With No Religious-Freedom Exceptions
Recent court filings uncovered by the Catholic Benefits Association show HHS is working with activist groups to establish sweeping sex-discrimination regulations and dismantle the former Trump administration’s religious-liberty protections in health-care law.
CBA Wins Permanent Injunctions Against Obama-era Transgender Coverage Mandate
In a major religious rights victory, a federal judge has ruled in favor of Catholic Benefits Association (CBA) and its members in their suit filed in 2016. The ruling gives declaratory and permanent injunctive relief against the HHS 2016 regulation interpreting Section 1557 of the ACA mandating insurance coverage for gender transition drugs and surgeries and enjoins the EEOC from issuing similar regulations or undertaking investigations or enforcement actions based on its interpretations of sex discrimination under Title VII.
CBA Confronts Fetal Tissue Research in Clinical Trials
Catholic Benefits Association legal counsel, Martin Nussbaum, discusses the clinical trials mandates using aborted fetal tissue and our work on behalf of our members to grant a religious exemption.
What the Supreme Court LGBT decision could mean for Catholic employers
After the Supreme Court recognized protections for sexual orientation and gender identity in federal law this week, Catholic employers shouldn’t assume they will be protected from future lawsuits, says the Catholic Benefits Association.
Bearing Witness as a Catholic Employer
The most distinctive thing about the American founding was its protection of religious freedom. This protection was embodied in the Constitution and, subsequently, in hundreds of statutes and ordinances that accommodated or exempted religiously-conscientious individuals and organizations. As late as 1993, a unanimous House and 97 Senators enacted, and President Clinton signed, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Clinical Trials Mandate Letter to HHS OCR Director
As you will recall, on August 24, 2018, the Catholic Benefits Association (CBA) brought to your attention the issue of the Affordable Care Act’s clinical trial mandate codified at 42 U.S.C. § 300gg-8 that requires employers with health plans to cover the costs of clinical trials even when they utilize human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) or fetal tissue harvested from aborted fetuses. In that letter, we identified nine hESC clinical trials and twenty-two fetal tissue clinical trials and requested exemption from such trials for CBA member employers along with their third-party administrators and group insurers.
Amicus Brief – Little Sisters of the Poor
The government’s decision to cleave religious organization into two camps was bad enough. But doing so based on a tax code provision designed for a completely different purpose made no sense at all, and it yielded results both strange and constitutionally problematic.
Religious Freedom Reports
Are we abandoning women?
by Mandy Cox If we remove contraceptives from our health benefits, are we abandoning women? Real answer for real health issues It is all too common that a woman at some point in her life will experience problems that bring her to the OBGYN office looking for...
Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) within Preventive Care
by Jason Coon A great example of appointed government organizations (ie. USPSTF, HRSA, CDC) changing requirements on preventive services is Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis or PrEP. Beginning January 1, 2021, insurance companies were mandated to cover Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis...
Is Abortion Hidden In Your Health Plan?
by Jason Coon Like many of you, the CBA has been thoroughly engaged in the latest legal cases involving abortion. From the Texas Heartbeat Bill to Dobb’s v. Jackson’s Women Clinic, the loss of innocent human life through abortion is on the forefront of the minds of...
Gender Transition and Identity Services within Your Health Plan
by Jason Coon Most plans include exclusion lists addressing Gender Transition or Gender Identity services to some extent. Many of those exclusions remain very broad and open ended. Many do not include an exclusion for cross-sex hormones within medical or pharmacy...
How Your Health Plan Can Fall Victim to Standardization
by Jason Coon Today, Catholic employers are looking for ways to reduce the cost of their health plans and improve Catholic Identity within their health plan experience, but is standardization preventing them from achieving both? Four years ago, we began reviewing...