Intermountain Healthcare to offer insurance benefits to employees' domestic partners

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's largest medical care provider soon will begin offering insurance benefits to its employees' domestic partners.

Beginning Jan. 1, Intermountain Healthcare will join the growing number of businesses and government organizations to extend benefits to partners of unmarried employees.

"This is great. It's necessary and needed," said Cathy Martinez, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Resource Center at the University of Utah. "There are lot of LGBT people working in health care."

But Martinez says the action is more than a "gay issue."

"Really, it's a human issue because domestic partner benefits also benefit those who identify as heterosexual but are unmarried for whatever reason," she said. "Though it does benefit LGBT people who are in valid partnerships, it also includes those who are heterosexual and not married."

Intermountain Healthcare officials said information about the option for domestic partner benefits has begun to be communicated to its 32,000 employees in Utah and Idaho.

The company operates 23 hospitals, more than 150 clinics and either owns or supports 20 community clinics serving uninsured and low-income patients.

"I think when a company such as (Intermountain Healthcare) says we're going to do this now, it sends a really clear message," Martinez said.

Other large Utah employers offering domestic partner benefits include Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, the University of Utah, MountainStar Healthcare and Marriott International.

Contributing: Marc Giauque

e-mail: jpage@desnews.com