Art Institute risks losing accreditation

accredited as Middle States examines the schools’ finances, strategic plan and othermeasures.

At the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, it is unclear what specifically has triggered the backlash from accreditors.

Middle States had placed the school, based in the Strip District, on probation in February amid doubts over the school’s mission, financial sustainability, conflicts of interest and management plan.

The school has faced an escalating feud with Middle States since Dream Center Education Holdings, a California-based nonprofit, took control of the schools from Education Management Corp., a Pittsburgh for-profit educationcompany.

Dream Center announced month it would close 18 Art Institutes, not including the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, by the end of the year. Around the same time, EDMC filed for Chapter7 bankruptcy.

The accreditation woes jeopardize a key priority for Dream Center: online education. The Art Institutes’ online division is housed in the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, where students attending one of the 18 closing Art Institute campuses have been given the opportunity to transfer for half the cost of tuition.

A loss of accreditation — which is higher education’s way of self-enforcing basic quality control measures — would almost certainly sink those efforts. Accreditation is a requirement for a school to be eligible to receive federalstudent loan money. business — which includes Medicare Advantage plans and Medicaid, as well as the individual marketplace plans — showed a slight increase in revenue to $288 million, compared with $284million last year. Highmark had cut back on its Affordable Care Act individual marketplace plans after suffering significant losses in the early years of theprogram.

With the ACA market more settled now, “We believe we’re in a stable position,” said Deb Rice-Johnson, Highmark Health Plan president. “I believe we’ve learned how to manage that population.”