We used to take pride in having quality care that was close at hand, so much so that we’ve given willingly every year to Children’s Hospital, we’ve been happy to see taxpayer-provided grants go to UPMC facilities and we’ve watched our well-endowed neighbors offer tremendous philanthropy to build new UPMC centers.

But now we’re caught between two feuding giants — UPMC, which controls most of the region’s health care, and Highmark, which issues most of the region’s health insurance — and it’s the average folks of Western Pennsylvania who are about to be trampled. That’s because UPMC, its CEO Jeffrey Romoff, its executive officers and supposedly its 24 directors are against negotiating a new service agreement with Highmark.

After June 30, when the current 10-year contract lapses, we, as Highmark customers, will not be entitled to in-network access at most of UPMC’s 20 hospitals. A one-year rollout, or grace period, after that will let us continue to receive affordable care for 12 more months under our Highmark plans. UPMC insists, however, that the grace doesn’t apply to our relationships with its doctors. All those years of care, treatment and support — “life changing medicine” as UPMC calls it — will end eight months from now, says the hospital network.

Highmark is willing to talk about reaching a new agreement, but all UPMC wants to discuss is terms of the divorce. Well, we’re not interested. Nor do we buy the Romoff Remedy: Just switch health plans, which the $4-million-a-year executive says plenty of people do anyway “once a year.”

We won’t because we helped build the empire that is UPMC and our premiums helped create the near-monopoly that is Highmark. As so-called nonprofits under the state public charities law, they each had a bundle left after expenses last year — $406 million at UPMC and $462 million at Highmark. The way we see it, those profits, reaped from large companies and small firms, rich and poor families alike, oblige them to work things out.

Trouble is, UPMC doesn’t see it that way. That’s why Pennsylvanians must turn to their elected officials. Various members of the Legislature, thank goodness, have gotten active on the UPMC-Highmark split to try to drive the parties back to negotiations.

Rep. Dan Frankel, a Squirrel Hill Democrat, has introduced a bill that would require binding arbitration if UPMC and Highmark fail to reach an agreement covering Children’s Hospital, Magee-Womens Hospital, Hillman Cancer Center, Western Psychiatric, UPMC cancer centers and the health care workers who provide care at those facilities. The bill has 73 co-sponsors — 57 Democrats and 16 Republicans — who blanket Western Pennsylvania.

Rep. Tony DeLuca, D-Penn Hills, has a bill with bipartisan support from 60 co-sponsors that would give the state insurance commissioner power to order that a contract between a feuding hospital and insurer be continued if it were in the public’s interest.

These bills are unusual. But the pressure is critical, necessary and a reminder to UPMC that it can’t profess to serve patients in one breath, then treat them like chattel in the next. Here’s where you come in, Gov. Corbett.

It’s time for you to use the power of your office. It’s why you were elected, after all. We know that, as a Republican, it goes against your grain to interfere in what some might call a business dispute. But this is no mere disagreement — it’s a public war, and a war on the public, that will take its toll on the medical treatment of innocent people, that makes this region look dysfunctional on how its health care and health insurance intersect and that will hurt Pennsylvania from an economic development standpoint.

If this kind of crisis, unfolding in your city, doesn’t call for a governor’s intervention, then we can’t imagine one that does. Gov. Corbett, it’s up to you to bring them to the table, for the health of Pittsburgh, for the sake of Pennsylvania.

Sincerely wishing it weren’t true,

3 million Highmark customers

Read more:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11296/1183974-192-0.stm?cmpid=newspanel6

We remain a reading clan, and, no shocker, a chatty family who appreciate the quick turn of phrase and the creative retort to a sibling’s teasing. 

Therefore, I celebrate two recent actions that celebrate the power of words:

• The PA Legislature continues to move toward final passage in replacing the phrase “mental retardation” with the more acceptable “persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities.” 
• Janet Minick, a member of our Health Committee for People with Disabilities, exercised her word strength by writing, submitting and having run in the 5 October 2011 of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette an incredible and “spot on” letter-to-the-editor.  Here is the link to read this amazing piece: 

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11278/1179703-110.stm

I encourage readers of this blog to take similar actions. Words have power and through them we progress and make change.

Write On, my friends! 

sj;

For common good

We live in a time when we are overburdened and concerned about cost. Nothing is more costly than our broken health care system. If we are truly serious about saving money, then a good first step is to develop a health care delivery system that is patient-centered and patient-driven, not profit-driven. This system relies on informed and involved consumers engaged in discussion of treatment options and care. Patients are proactive and aid in the reduction of hospital-acquired infections and preventable medical errors.

Recent articles have reported on formation of the government super-committee, which will work to reduce costs and find savings. With Sen. Pat Toomey selected to the committee, Pennsylvanians have an added incentive to closely follow this work. Committee members must strive to compromise, be fair in cuts and seek new sources of revenue.

In terms of cost savings, reform of the health care delivery system to become more patient-centered is a good place to start. A wise second step is to avoid cuts to Medicaid. Pennsylvania has the second oldest population in the country, with one in every seven residents over the age of 65. Older adults and people with disabilities rely on Medicaid for their long-term living needs. Aging baby boomers want to age in place in the communities that we’ve built and continue to build.

I ask Sen. Toomey and the committee to consider the needs of our shared common good and have the courage to seek a balanced approach.

SUE ETTERS
Sewickley 

Read more from the Post-Gazette below:

Health care impasse addressed

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11252/1173312-114-0.stm

Don’t forget to SIGN THE PETITION

http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6560/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=6215