Highmark unsure of UPMC expansion

Highmark Health has not decided whether to oppose rival UPMC’s planned expansion into central Pennsylvania, but employers and businesses in that part of the state expect the insurer to “stand up for their rights,” president and CEO David Holmberg said in a briefing Friday.

Highmark and Harrisburg-based Capital BlueCross dominate the central Pennsylvania health insurance market with a 75 percent share, brokers say, and Highmark has had a long relationship with PinnacleHealth System, a three-hospital network based in Harrisburg. UPMC on Tuesday announced that it would affiliate with Pinnacle, which announced plans of its own the same day to acquire four other hospitals in the region from a for-profit hospital chain.

If consummated, the deal would be UPMC’s biggest network expansion. The system operates about 25 hospitals. The central Pennsylvania deal would give UPMC control over seven more hospitals, which will likely require state and federal regulatory approval.

Read the full story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gasette: Highmark undecided on whether to oppose UPMC expansion | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette