A lawsuit has been filed against Lowe’s claiming that they violated federal law by changing the way their employees enrolled in health insurance. This change caused thousands of employees to lose their health care coverage without their knowledge. Many employees went months without having health insurance and not knowing about it. They were one hospital trip away from going thousands of dollars into debt. The Lowe’s employees class action lawsuit claims that Lowe’s violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and includes all employees who had a Lowe’s Group Medical Plan resulting in termination of health coverage in the year 2011.
Under the previous health insurance enrollment system employees were automatically enrolled unless they made a change to their policy. Then Lowe’s changed the policy that made every employee re-enroll via its computer system. The employees only learned of the dropped coverage after they or their family members became ill and they had to cough up the bill in full. The lawsuit states ““Lowe’s failed to give notice to any of its employees who lost coverage due to the modification of the enrollment procedure or to inform them in any way of the loss of coverage.” Imagine falling down and breaking your leg and being rushed to the emergency room only to find out you don’t have health insurance. That would make a very bad situation even worse.
The lawsuit is seeking reimbursement of medical expenses that were paid by the employees as a result of not having health insurance. The lawsuit is also seeking that employees be reinstated of coverage for Class Members. The lawsuit was filed by Abbey Spanier Rodd & Abrams, LLP, Sapir & Frumkin LLP and the Law Offices of Patrick F. Lee on behalf of class members. This case will be in the jurisdiction of the United States District Court, Southern District of New York. Stay tuned for more details.
