HUNTINGTON Federal Judge Robert C. Chambers has prelimiarily approved a class-action lawsuit settlement between Cabell Huntington Hospital and retirees who claimed it misrepresented its retiree health and welfare benefits.
HUNTINGTON Two retired employees say that Cabell Huntington Hospital has violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 by misrepresenting its lifetime retiree health and welfare benefits.
Martha Marty Blenko and Laura Mullarky filed the class-action lawsuit alleging that CHH repeatedly represented to them they could retire as non-union employees beginning at age 62 and retain their health insurance if they had attained 17 years of credited service, according to a complaint filed May 25 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. Cabell further informed the plaintiffs Cabell would provide comparable health insurance to the non-union retirees until they became Medicare-eligible, and that Cabell would then provide a comparable, cost-free Medicare supplement throughout the rest of those retirees’ lives, the complaint states.