Former East Huntingdon plant workers left with $40K in medical bills despite judge's order

Former workers of a shuttered East Huntingdon metalworking company are waiting for the firm’s owner to pay about $40,000 in overdue medical bills incurred after they found out they were without insurance.

U.S. Judge Robert Colville ordered Robert H. Kendi, president of the Ken-Co Fabricating Co. Inc., to “immediately pay” $40,436 to cover their medical claims. Court papers indicate Ken-Co collected premiums from employees but let their health insurance plan lapse before closing in 2019.

“I’ve been fighting this case for five years. … I owe about $34,000” from surgery in 2019, said Marcy Glowacki of Bullskin.

Glowacki said she thought her dilemma was resolved when Colville issued his order Feb. 8.

“We finally thought it was settled, but (Kendi) didn’t pay” said Glowacki, who worked in the company’s parts department.

The Labor Department won a default judgment against the company when Kendi did not mount a defense against claims in a November 2022 lawsuit that it allowed the company’s UPMC Health Plan coverage to lapse from May through October 2019. The government claimed Kendi failed to notify employees their health insurance was terminated, breaching his fiduciary responsibilities to maintain the insurance.

Glowacki left the company in 2011 but continued insurance coverage through her husband, Anthony, who also worked for Ken-Co. She thought her May 2019 intestinal surgery at Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg would be covered, but UPMC Health Plan and the hospital informed her after her procedure that the insurance had been terminated.

Another former Ken-Co plant worker, Alan Ostrowski of Upper Tyrone, said he has been waiting close to five years for Kendi to reimburse him for about $4,100 in medical bills he paid in 2019 after the health insurance policy lapsed.

“I haven’t seen a dime. I had to pay the bill when I believed I had insurance,” Ostrowski said.

Kendi, a Hempfield resident, could not be reached for comment via numerous phone calls or a letter sent to his residence on Country Club Drive in Hempfield.

The Labor Department also has had a difficult time tracking down Kendi to be served with a court summons, asking Colville for multiple extensions to contact him. The government said in April 2023 that Kendi had not responded to summons or an amended complaint filed against him, both of which were sent to his residence and a workplace address in Maryland. Kendi said in an email to the department in April 2023 he would review documents and respond, but the department said in a subsequent filing he had not done so.

The Labor Department said Kendi and the company continued to deduct health insurance premiums from his workers’ pay — $4,014 — from May through August 2019, without reinstating the UPMC Health Plan or other health insurance coverage.

As for the money deducted from his pay for health insurance he never received, Ostrowski, a metal fabricator, said he never got back the few thousand dollars owed him by the company. He said he also was owed two weeks’ pay when Kendi abruptly closed the plant in October 2019, telling workers to leave at lunchtime.

The judge removed Kendi and his company from overseeing the health insurance coverage, replacing them with AMI Benefit Plan Administrators of Youngstown, Ohio. An AMI spokesperson said the company could not reveal whether Kendi has made a payment to them. The Ohio firm was directed to pay legitimate claims, but those payments are secondary to payments of AMI’s administrative fees, including attorneys, actuaries and other needed service providers, according to the court order.

Glowacki said only the Labor Department’s intervention stopped the calls from collectors demanding she pay the outstanding medical bills.

For those debtors who do not pay their court-ordered judgment, the Labor Department “has used a variety of tools, including seizure of assets, as well as liens and garnishment” to recover the money owed, said Lenore Fortson, a Labor Department public affairs regional director.

Kendi sold the Ken-Co building and 6.7-acre parcel on Water Street to Jack Everett Davis II for $330,000 in September 2020, according to filings with the Westmoreland County Recorder of Deeds.

Ken-Co company made parts for fire trucks.