Judge vows to move fast ahead of July 1 UPMC-Highmark split

Associated Press

HARRISBURG, PA.

Patients in western Pennsylvania bracing for higher costs under the pending breakup of the business relationship between two large Pittsburgh-based health care providers will soon learn whether that can be delayed.

A state judge Friday said he hoped to rule by June 14 about what UPMC, Highmark Health and the attorney general’s office meant by a provision in their 2014 consent decree that said it can be modified.

If UPMC succeeds in ending its deal with Highmark as scheduled July 1, it will trigger higher costs for Highmark insurance customers who get treatment at UPMC’s vast network of hospitals, doctors and other medical providers.

The attorney general’s office is seeking to extend the consent decree indefinitely, arguing that UPMC has obligations to the public as a charity, a status that gives it tax protection.

Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson laid out a compressed schedule.

“The question is whether the termination date can be modified, yes or no,” Judge Simpson told lawyers. If the answer is yes, he said, then the next question is how long or what an extension will look like.

Stephen Cozen, a lawyer for UPMC, said the other side has to prove that in 2014, UPMC knew about their interpretation that the decree can be extended – and agreed to it.

The state Supreme Court this week asked for the proceedings, and it’s all but certain the justices will review whatever Judge Simpson determines.