Cherry Creek Mortgage says it has updated insurance policies

The Greenwood Village-based company accused in a federal lawsuit of discriminating against a lesbian employee by denying health insurance for her wife has updated its policies to include samesex spouses, Cherry Creek Mortgage vice president Kirsten Hamling said.

“Cherry Creek Mortgage Company has always, and will always support its employees and their families,” Hamling said in an email. “We believe we were at all times acting within our legal and business rights. We have taken this as an opportunity to reevaluate and change our policy. Going forward, we will cover same-sex spouses in our health plan effective immediately. We believe this is consistent with our values, and in the best interest of our employees and community.”

The lawsuit filed against Cherry Creek Mortgage and UnitedHealthcare alleged John Carson, a vice president for the mortgage company, told 59-year-old California-based employee Judith Dominguez that her lesbian marriage was not in line with the company’s “clear criteria for spousal benefits,” adding his religious views that employees should not marry a same-sex person.

Carson also is a University of Colorado Regent. The Republican from Highlands Ranch was elected in 2015. His term ends in 2021. He did not respond to a request for comment.

CU spokesman Ken McConnellogue declined to comment on the CU regent’s involvement in the lawsuit. “What regents do in their professional careers does not represent the university, nor is it our business.”

Cherry Creek Mortgage operates in 24 states. In 2013, Cherry Creek Mortgage sued to get out of the federal requirement that birth control be covered by healthinsurance plans offered by companies. At the time, William Armstrong and his family, who were the voting shareholders of the company, said the mandate violated their religious beliefs.

According to the lawsuit, Dominguez and wife Patricia Martinez, who were enrolled in Cherry Creek’s health insurance plan in 2016, were denied re-enrollment

at the end of the year “because Cherry Creek covers ‘spouses who are in a legal union between one man and one woman.'”

Martinez and Dominguez, a mortgage originator, have been together for 29 years, legally marrying in California in 2013. Cherry Creek also allegedly told Dominguez that it would ret- roactively rescind the health benefits already given to her and Martinez for the previous year, leaving the couple with more than $40,000 in “unexpected health care bills for past treatments,” the lawsuit read.

The lawsuit said the company claimed to be “Christian-based” as part of its reasoning for denying the couple insurance.

Dominguez later filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.