UPMC Wants Suit Dismissed

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is asking a judge to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit filed against it by West Penn Allegheny Health System. WPAHS filed suit in April contending UPMC and Highmark Inc. “conspired to protect one another from competition.” Th suit went o to say, “We believe that for several years UPMC and Highmark have engaged in mutual back-scratching designed to preserve Highmark’s monopoly in health insurance and to permit UPMC to build a monopoly in sophisticated tertiary and quaternary health care in this region.” In its request for dismissal UPMC says the “lawsuit is nothing more than an attempt to divert attention away from its [WPAHS] inability to get its financial house in order and shift blame for its failings to UPMC.” UPMC says there is no legal or factual basis for any of WPAHS’s claims.