Former East Huntingdon firm must pay $40K in employee medical bills after health insurance lapses

An East Huntingdon metalworking company will be required to pay about $40,000 to employees who racked up medical bills in 2019 when the company let its health insurance lapse — even though it deducted money from workers’ pay, a federal judge ruled.

Robert H. Kendi, president of Ken-Co. Fabricating Co., which formerly occupied a building on Water Street, and his company were directed to pay at least $40,436 to compensate employees for medical expenses that should have been covered by a UPMC insurance plan, according to the Labor Department’s filing in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh.

Judge Robert J. Colville on Feb. 8 granted the Labor Department a default judgement in its two-count complaint filed in November 2022, alleging Kendi and his company violated the Employment Retirement Income Security Act by allowing its worker health insurance coverage to lapse in May 2019.

The defendants had not responded to the complaint as of last July, according to the Labor Department.

Kendi could not reached for comment.

The Labor Department accused Kendi and the company of deducting $4,014 from the workers’ pay from May 2019 through August 2019, but not paying the UPMC Health Plan premiums or securing other health insurance coverage. The company also did not forward the employer’s contribution for health insurance to UPMC Health Plan, the Labor Department claimed.

The UPMC Health Plan notified the company on June 14, 2019, that insurance coverage of its employees ended on April 30 because of a failure to pay the premiums.

The court filings did not disclose what the company did with the money it deducted from paychecks.