Deal to buy Butler OB/GYN practice strengthens area’s ties to UPMC
In a new joint venture announced this week, UPMC continues to expand its influence with community health care providers while helping drive patients to a mothership hospital in Pittsburgh.
UPMC’s agreement with Butler Health System brings in Butler-based Advanced OB/GYN Associates, which is among the largest independent practices of its kind in the region. Terms were not disclosed, but the deal continues UPMC’s collaboration with Butler — one of the independent so-called “bridge” hospitals that ring Pittsburgh.
Bridge hospitals are key partners in driving patient volume to the big academic medical centers in Pittsburgh that covet relationships with smaller health
care providers.
Ron Cypher, Butler native and lead physician in the Advanced OB/GYN practice, said he was happy the group would continue accepting Highmark and UPMC health insurance members. The practice has five physicians and six physician assistants, nurse midwives and other support staff.
UPMC and Highmark’s Allegheny Health Network are health insurance and medical care rivals, so it’s unusual the practice reached an agreement to accept patients with coverage from both carriers. But Dr. Cypher said it’s a strength of the practice.
“It’s really the best of two worlds,” said Dr. Cypher, who started the practice 33 years ago. “I’m really proud of both hospitals. That’s not an easy thing to work out.”
The joint venture was several years in the making, he said, and the practice will continue staffing offices in Cranberry, Slippery Rock and Grove City, in addition to Butler.
The collaboration means women with high-risk pregnancies will be referred to UPMC’s Magee Womens Hospital in Oakland or to West Penn Hospital in Bloomfield, which is operated by Highmark’s Allegheny Health Network. Where the patients go will depend on their insurance plans.
“We are excited about this collaboration,” Robert Edwards, chairman of the department of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive services at UPMC, said in a prepared statement.
UPMC, the biggest nongovernmental employer in Pennsylvania, has 65,000 employees, 3,600 doctors and operates about two dozen hospitals. The competition between UPMC and AHN for patients and community hospital partners has been intense.
UPMC reached out to Butler in 2013 to acquire Butler Radiation Oncology Associates and the practices of two cancer doctors. The Pittsburgh health system now provides medical and radiation oncology care under an agreement with BHS.
Although details of UPMC’s relationship with Butler for cancer care were not disclosed, the Pittsburgh health system typically provides the service in joint ventures with community hospitals, including Heritage Valley Health System and Excela Health.
In 2014, UPMC and Butler Health System jointly bought Tri Rivers Surgical Associates, then the largest independent orthopedic practice of its kind in Western Pennsylvania.
Like the OB/GYN agreement, patients with Highmark and UPMC health insurance were accepted. The practice was renamed Tri Rivers Surgical Associates.
Uniontown Hospital in Fayette County has among the most extensive relationships with UPMC in the region.
The Pittsburgh health care giant provides care at Uniontown and in Pittsburgh for cancer, heart disease and women’s services, including high-risk pregnancy and childbirth.
A UPMC affiliate staffs Uniontown Hospital’s emergency room with doctors. UPMCalso helps Uniontown with physician recruitment and other medical staffing needs.