Clerical Error “Terminates” Pregnant City Employee

School employee out $16,000 in bureaucratic snafu

Everybody who worked with Vontelle Coates at P.S. 19 in Corona, Queens knew why she was taking time off.

 "I was showing out to here," Coates recalled of her pregnancy, spreading her hands about two feet in front of her now slimmed down belly.

Well, almost everybody knew.

When the clerical associate went on maternity leave in early 2001, Coates says she filed the required paperwork, but another clerical worker at New York City's Department of Education mistakenly listed her as "terminated."

"From what he put in the computer, the computer thought that I didn't have a job anymore," said Coates. That wasn't a problem for her elementary school supervisors, who knew differently and welcomed the mother back after the healthy birth of daughter, Kellen.

But it was too troubling for the city's insurance carrier, HIP, which after initially approving and paying $11,140 for maternity care at North Shore University Hospital, rejected the claim and took back the money. The reason? Vontelle Coates was shown in the city's computer system as "no longer employed" and therefore ineligible for health coverage.

And so it went for more than nine years, as Kellen grew up.

North Shore Hospital, where Coates said she'd received "great care," got tired of waiting for payment in 2003 and sued Coates. A judge ordered the hospital's bill -- plus interest and collection fees, a total of almost $16,000 -- taken out of the school employee's paychecks. 

"I kept hitting a brick wall. Everybody I talked to said they were sorry for the mistake and it shouldn't have happened to me, but nobody did anything," Coates said recently, recalling her attempts to resolve the situation.

Fed up in 2010, she called attorney Kenneth Mollins, who contacted NBCNewYork.

"This is a bureaucratic mess and the City of New York appears to have nobody who is in a position to help this woman," said Mollins.

But Department of Education spokeswoman Ann Forte responded: "Ms. Coates failed to ensure all the proper documentation was submitted to qualify her for health coverage... employees do have a responsibility to make sure the necessary documentation and paperwork are filed in a timely manner."

Asked in an email message to explain exactly what paperwork was missing, the spokeswoman did not immediately reply.

But after NBCNewYork started to ask questions about the case July 7th, an attorney for EmblemHealth Services Company, owner of HIP, sent a message that said: "HIP will reimburse to [Vontelle Coates] all her out of pocket costs, including interest and court costs... we regret the inconvenience [she] experienced."

The entire $15,563 is apparently coming back.

"I'm not bitter. I'm just angry right now," said the mother of now nine year-old Kellen. "If I get my money back, that will take the anger away," she added, allowing herself a smile, finally. 

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