By Mike Tony
For HDMedia
Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va., is at grave risk of losing his Greenbrier resort properties that federal court records indicate have been appraised at over $1.1 billion.
Judge Frank Volk, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, on Friday scheduled a prehearing conference for May 7 and an evidentiary hearing for May 11 in a case in which an affiliate of prominent international hotel chain Omni Hotels and Resorts seeks a receiver to take over the Justice family’s Greenbrier properties.
But retirees of Justice’s coal companies have told the same federal court that they’re losing out on something more valuable to them — prescription drug coverage that those companies contractually promised to them.
Prior to the court filing, the Gazette-Mail reported this month that prescription drug coverage lapses were reoccurring for Justice coal company retirees and their dependents.
Their claim of the Justice coal companies’ renewed failure to provide prescription drug coverage coincides with a former partner of Justice energy firms reporting to another federal court that he and the firms have failed to comply with a multimillion-dollar judgment against them from 2021.
And in a separate case, another federal court has entered a judgment against a different Justice energy company that a union accused of violating a collective bargaining agreement by failing to provide an arbitration award granted to a 28-year employee the company was found to have improperly laid off.
Since January, weeks of coverage lapses reported
Four retired Justice coal company mine workers and the United Mine Workers of America International union on Thursday asked a federal court, in part, for damages in the amount of any out-of-pocket expenses they and their dependents have incurred while their prescription drug coverage was terminated.
The retired miners and UMWA said in a Thursday filing the Justice coal companies have failed to provide prescription drug benefits from Jan. 23 to Feb. 9 and again from March 19 to the present.
The report comes in a lawsuit the miners and union filed in 2019 flagging health benefit service interruptions allowed by Justice coal companies causing miners and their dependents to pay out of pocket for or go without critical drugs.
The plaintiffs and other retired miners have reported intermittent lapses in coverage of only a few days to several weeks since then.
The Justice-controlled firms that are defendants in the case are Justice Energy Co., Keystone Service Industries, Inc., Bluestone Coal Corp., Double-Bonus Coal Co. and Southern Coal Corp.
The UMWA has said that 250 to 300 healthcare recipients have been affected by past coverage interruptions.
Steven Ruby, a lawyer for the companies, did not respond to requests for comment.
Ruby previously has said prescription payments through a third-party administrator sometimes have been unavailable.
Spokespeople for Justice’s Senate office did not respond to requests for comment.
‘Going without that medicine is frightening’
Linda Lafferty, who lives in the tiny, unincorporated McDowell County community of Northfork, indicated in a court declaration revealed Thursday the latest coverage lapse has hit her hard, given her reliance on the coverage earned by her husband Andrew Lafferty, as a retiree of Justice’s Keystone Service Industries, Inc.
Lafferty said in the declaration that she had gone without medication since Jan. 30 because she couldn’t obtain refills.
“Going without that medicine is frightening to me,” Lafferty said in the declaration, reporting she had adverse health episodes before she was prescribed the medication, which was redacted from public view.
Lafferty said she was told her prescription benefits were inactive and she couldn’t get her medicine when she called to check on her prescriptions at the Walmart in Bluefield, Virginia on Feb. 3. Lafferty said she called Leslie Wells, a representative of the companies, who told her the companies would wire her the money she needed to buy the medications. Then Lafferty told Wells the cost of the medications — $4,405 — and provided Wells her bank account information, according to Lafferty’s declaration.
But then Lafferty didn’t receive the wire transfer and subsequently couldn’t reach Wells, with no indication from the companies when the prescription benefits would be reinstated, according to Lafferty.
The out-of-pocket costs for Lafferty’s medications would consume about 80% of her and her husband’s monthly after-tax income, Lafferty warned in her declaration.
Jeannie Starcher of North Tazewell, Virginia, just beyond McDowell County, said in a declaration filed Thursday she couldn’t get medications needed to address a redacted, life-threatening condition for her husband and Justice Energy Co. retiree Ronald Starcher on Feb. 1 at a Walmart pharmacy more than 10 miles from her home, where she said a worker told her their prescription benefits were inactive.
Starcher said that after she again couldn’t get the medications on Feb. 2 for the same reason, Connie Vance, a representative of the companies she regularly contacts regarding issues with Starcher’s health and prescription benefits, told her to call Wells, noting she works in human resources for the companies.
But although Vance said Wells would have a credit card that could be used to buy the medications while the prescription benefits were inactive, Walmart’s pharmacy did not accept credit cards over the phone as payment, Starcher said. So, per Starcher, Wells told her on Feb. 3 the companies would wire her the money needed to purchase medications, at which point Starcher said the cost of the outstanding medications was $1,811 and provided her bank account information.
But Starcher said she hadn’t received the wire transfer or any communications from the companies to explain why she hadn’t received the wire transfer or when she might receive it.
Starcher testified that the out-of-pocket costs for eight medications her husband is entitled to would consume roughly 60% of their monthly after-tax income. Because her husband couldn’t get medication refills, he had to ration what medications he had left, she reported.
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