News Release
Department of Labor reaches settlement to resolve $1.2M in medical claims unpaid by Revelation Energy LLC health care plan, affiliated entities
MILTON, WV – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration has entered into a settlement agreement to resolve more than $1.2 million in unpaid medical claims by the Revelation Energy LLC health care plan based in Milton.
The settlement agreement follows an EBSA investigation that found the affiliated employers offered a self-insured health plan to provide medical benefits to employees. The health plan was funded by employee and employer contributions. Investigators determined that the employers failed to fund their obligations to pay employees’ medical benefit claims, causing employees to accrue over $1,296,427 in unpaid medical bills. The following employers were parties to the settlement agreement:
- Clearwater Investment Holdings LLC
- Lexington Coal Company LLC
- Construction and Reclamation Services LLC
- Active Medical LLC
- Forrest Machine LLC
- Grand Patrician Resort LLC
- Republic Superior Products LLC
As part of the agreement, former Blackjewel LLC Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey A. Hoops and the employers must resolve the unpaid claims by negotiating with the top 19 healthcare providers that provided services to employees under the Revelation Energy LLC Health Care Plan. They are also required to reimburse health plan participants and beneficiaries who paid for health care services that should have been covered. Additionally, the employers must give notice to their employees and former employees to forward any health care bill they received. The employers will confirm the charged amounts were cancelled or negotiate with the providers to pay these claims.
“The resolution reached in this case will bring long-awaited relief to the plan participants negatively impacted by the employers’ negligence in paying the medical claims submitted under the health care plan,” said Employee Benefits Security Administration Deputy Regional Director Norman Jackson in Philadelphia.
The settlement agreement was reached in lieu of litigation by the department’s Office of the Solicitor. It coincides with a consent judgment and order, obtained by the Solicitor of Labor, that orders the trustees of coal producer Blackjewel LLC’s 401(k) plan – Hoops, former Blackjewel LLC Chief Financial Officer Drew Kesler and Controller Donald P. Hetrick – to pay $637,014.50 in equitable restitution after an EBSA investigation found they violated fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. EBSA concluded that, from January 2017 to January 2019, the trustees failed to forward elective employee contributions and mandatory matching contributions to the relevant ERISA plan in the months leading up to Blackjewel’s declaration of Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 1, 2019. Instead, the defendants unlawfully diverted the contributions to pay for company expenses.
