Not "just another way..." It definitely allows for discrimination, but I think there are other more central driving purposes. It provides a powerful platform for "witnessing" or public PR, take your pick. It also fulfills the Biblical directive to "do good works," which is not, in and of itself, a bad thing. But it really gives them some clout to have an added voice at the table for steering public policy in matters involving health and medicine services. The last one is, to me, maybe the most dangerous. As long as religious organizations appear to be meeting a need for a public service, it often means the government lets them run it their way. That's what allows for the discrimination. Just like how churches run nearly all the domestic adoption agencies in this country. That means countless non-religious prospective parents get denied the opportunity to adopt. They aren't deemed "the right kind" of parent.

free masonry

I never even knew there were religious hospitals...

Some churches hold that part of their mission is to help people regardless of faith, through medicine and other outreach projects (schools in areas with extreme poverty, food relief in areas hit by severe drought, etc.). I know the Seventh Day Adventists do a lot of this stuff, and a few other churches have similar programs. While I will never be Adventist again, I have to admit they do a lot of good through these things. Their hospitals here in the US do good work, and their efforts overseas through ADRA (their charity relief organization) do a lot of good for Christian and non-Christian people and communities. I don't know how many Adventist hospitals discriminate against people, but at least in the ones I know of in Colorado, their stated mission is to help anyone, regardless of religion, and they did not restrict birth control access any more than non-Adventist hospitals. (Keep in mind, in the US access to birth control has been limited through politics as well as religion, and historically politicians have argued against birth control because the world needs more Americans and birth control decreases the number of American babies born, not essentially a religious argument.)

The ACLU is suing a religious hospital in Vancouver WA because they believe that they discriminated against a transgender patient. What I think is ... probably happened. You know, for some, religion is just a screen to hide behind and permission to be hateful.