By Mike Tony, Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Coal companies owned and operated by Gov. Jim Justice’s family are still failing to provide prescription drug coverage to retired miners, even after they reached an agreement to resolve a federal lawsuit to do so, according to the four retired miners and union behind the lawsuit.
The retired miners and the United Mine Workers union said in a filing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia on Friday that a representative of UMWA District 17, which includes Southern West Virginia, began receiving telephone calls last week from retirees about their inability to fill prescriptions because of lapses in coverage that the Justice-controlled coal companies were required to provide per past agreements.
The union and retired miners allege that the coal companies repeatedly have failed to inform them when prescription coverage is interrupted and restored, reporting seven lapses of coverage since October that resulted in some retirees who could not afford to pay out-of-pocket prescription costs not filling their prescriptions.
“The UMWA’s expectation was that whatever issue was causing the periodic lapses would be permanently resolved during the course of this lawsuit,” the union and retired miners said in the filing. “That expectation has not been met.” …
