Pa. lawmaker seeks co-sponsors for ‘any willing insurer’ legislation to push Highmark, UPMC together

Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-Forest Hills, is seeking co-sponsors on legislation that “would require UPMC and Highmark to either contract with each other for services or enter mandatory arbitration,” according to a release circulated Wednesday.

While not even in bill form yet, the move is another sign of growing interest from Harrisburg as the Pittsburgh region moves into the final months of a five-year agreement that has allowed some Highmark Medicare Advantage members and others continued innetwork access to UPMC hospitals. That agreement between the two Pittsburgh health giants expires June 30.

Mr. Costa’s proposed legislation would apply to all statewide integrated delivery networks — entities such as Highmark and UPMC that provide both care and sell health insurance — that would require those hospitals and physicians to contract with all insurers.

The release notes, “This issue is particularly problematic in southwestern Pennsylvania given the ongoing dispute between UPMC and Highmark.”

If enacted, “Consumers will not be denied care, or worse abandoned midtreatment, simply because they hold one type of insurance over another.”

The legislation also intends to block any dominant health system “from demanding unreasonable rates for services from insurers, and in turn raising the overall cost of health care because they are in the ‘must have’ system in that area.”

Similar legislation proposed in 2013 easily passed in the House but died in the Senate.