Speakers denounce UPMC, urge Pittsburgh City Council to withhold approval of master plan
JULIAN ROUTH Pittsburgh Post-Gazette jrouth@post-gazette.com JUL 17, 2018 4:47 PM For four hours on Tuesday, Pittsburgh City Council heard passionate testimonies from city residents about UPMC Mercy’s planned expansion in Uptown. In a marathon public hearing in the council’s chambers, more than 100 speakers took to the podium to make public comments over a proposed Read More
UPMC says it does not have employees
October 22, 2013 11:52 AM By Moriah Balingit / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Depending on whom you ask, medical giant UPMC either employs more than 50,000 people — or no one at all. On Monday, in one of the first hearings of the city of Pittsburgh’s lawsuit to strip UPMC of its tax-exempt charity status, Common Pleas Read More
UPMC defends charitable status
October 7, 2013 12:14 am By Andrew McGill / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette UPMC has begun answering the $1.6 billion question — is it really using its 550 acres of tax-free property in Allegheny County for charity? So far, the health care giant’s answer is as clear: You bet we are. In response to a top-to-bottom survey of tax-exempt Read More
NLRB charges UPMC with more than a dozen violations against union-organizing workers
October 2, 2013 1:04 pm By Steve Twedt / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The National Labor Relations Board has charged UPMC with 19 violations against workers involved in a union-organizing campaign. The charges include unlawfully “threatening, interrogating, and intimidating employees” for union activities, calling police on union representatives who were lawfully on UPMC premises, implying the workers would receive Read More
UPMC execs spin the facts to obscure low wages
September 11, 2013 12:09 am UPMC executives’ efforts to spin the facts can’t mask the reality of the health care giant’s low wages and meager benefits for service workers (“UPMC Provides Superior Benefits to Employees,”Sept. 4 letters). UPMC senior vice president Greg Peaslee’s attempt to obscure service workers’ low wages by lumping their wage rates Read More
Group says UPMC wage scale is harmful
August 22, 2013 12:14 am By Steve Twedt / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette UPMC may be the state’s largest employer with more than 50,000 people on staff locally, but the low wages that many of its service workers earn are eroding Pittsburgh’s middle class, according to a white paper scheduled for release today by Pittsburgh United, a long-standing critic Read More
Hospitals’ charges can vary greatly for similar services
May 9, 2013 12:10 am By Steve Twedt / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Even a quick glance of the data released Wednesday by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services shows stark differences in what hospitals charge for essentially the same service. If a patient had a pacemaker implanted at Allegheny General Hospital in 2011, the hospital on Read More
Chelsa Wagner: UPMC is different from other charities
April 17, 2013 12:05 am I understand some charities are concerned about the challenge of UPMC’s tax status. The truth is, our charities have nothing to worry about. This challenge has to do with whether UPMC meets the definition of a charity established by the state constitution and Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. A number of Read More
Highmark’s ‘Community Blue’ patients rejected by UPMC
March 5, 2013 12:18 am By Bill Toland / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette When Marie Acquafondata retired after 40 years at what is now UPMC Shadyside, she and her husband, John, had to switch health insurance plans. They left her UPMC Health Plan and signed up with Highmark’s new Community Blue plan, offered by his employer. Community Blue is Read More
UPMC vs. Highmark: Policy experts say now’s the time to end the warfare
March 31, 2013 12:20 am By Steve Twedt / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Twenty-one months from now, barring an unexpected thawing of the relationship, UPMC and Highmark will go their separate ways with ripple effects that will be felt throughout the region. Local health policy experts say that should not be allowed to happen and suggest now may be Read More
