Trans Philly Firefighter Gets Partial Go-Ahead in Coverage Case

Independence Blue Cross will have to defend a Philadelphia firefighter’s claim that its refusal to pay for facial feminization procedures to treat her gender dysphoria violates health and disability bias laws, a federal trial court said.

The firefighter can proceed with her claims against the administrator of the city’s employee health plan because she plausibly alleged that it discriminatorily applied the plan’s “functional impairment” exception to its cosmetic surgery exclusion in such a way as to exclude transgender people, the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said Aug. 2.

The court, however, limited the firefighter’s ...