West Penn Allegheny has filed an antitrust suit against rival University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, in a suit charging that the larger player was conspiring with the dominant local insurer to destroy it.
The suit claims that University of Pittsburgh Medical Center worked with Highmark to protect each other from competition, including a plan under which Highmark killed a low-cost insurance plan which had been sending patients to West Penn.
UPMC and Highmark, for their part, suggest that the suit is some sort of "wag the dog" strategy designed to distract the public from a PR blow it suffered recently. An audit last year, beginning with the hospital but extending to the SEC, dug up three years of accounting mistakes which forced the system to write down revenues $73 million.
To learn more about the suit:
- read this Modern Healthcare article
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