The Denver City Council questioned the city’s three health-insurance providers Wednesday about employees’ coverage in sensitive areas just like termination of pregnancy, end-of-life decisions and also the rights of gay partners and parents.

Representatives of United Healthcare and Denver Wellness appeared at the meeting, but Councilwoman Carol Boigon mentioned she was most interested in how management changes at Catholic-run Exempla St. Joseph Hospital and Good Samaritan Medical Center would affect the city employees covered by Kaiser Permanente.

Boigon mentioned her inquiry was made to inform employees — about half of whom opt for Kaiser Permanente coverage — previous to they pick insurers during open enrollment Oct. 4-22.

Boigon asked about policies on relieving the suffering of the terminally ill, honoring end-of-life directives, reproductive-health services and also the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender members.

Dr. Jandel Allen-Davis, vice president of Kaiser Permanente federal government relations, mentioned the company, which partners with 15 hospitals in Colorado, includes a nationally recognized procedure for managing the pain and symptoms of advanced illnesses and for hospice care for your dying.

The Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Well being Procedure took more than sole sponsorship of Exempla Healthcare’s three-hospital program at the end of 2009, which techniques that Great Samaritan and Exempla Lutheran have recently come under Catholic ethical and religious directives, Allen-Davis said. Nothing has changed at St. Joseph, Kaiser Permanente’s anchor hospital, which has abided by the directives since its commencing more than 100 years ago.

“In all of the time I’ve been there, I’ve in no way witnessed any person hit that wall,” Allen-Davis stated in response to Boigon’s question about what would happen if a person’s medical directive conflicted with Catholic moral principle.

Conflicts do arise in reproductive care, Allen-Davis said. However, a pregnancy may be indirectly terminated at a Catholic hospital due to a medical emergency that necessitates performing a medical method to save the mother.

In other cases, Kaiser will work with patients to obtain reproductive care at choice hospitals if a assistance just isn't provided at St. Joseph, Allen- Davis said. A single example would be a tubal ligation, she said, which would be arranged instead at Boulder Community Hospital or HealthOne Swedish Medical Center.

Boigon also asked regardless of whether seriously ill infants or miscarried fetuses would be baptized at Catholic hospitals with out parental consent. “No,” Exempla Healthcare vice president Christine Woolsey told The Denver Post.