Judge rejects UPMC bid to keep Highmark out of court hearings

Highmark will participate in hearings Monday and Tuesday in Commonwealth Court in Harrisburg, despite UPMC’s effort to deny the insurer a voice in court.

Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson on Tuesday denied a motion by UPMC to keep Highmark out of the hearings on whether in-network access to UPMC doctors can continue past June 30 for those who have Highmark health insurance.

State Attorney General Josh Shapiro is seeking to have agreements that were signed in 2012 by the two Pittsburgh health giants modified so the end dates extend indefinitely, a move that UPMC has challenged.

A five-year agreement between Highmark, UPMC and state regulators was reached in 2012 as part of a wind-down to contractual relations between the two health care behemoths. In a court motion filed May 31, UPMC argued that the state, not Highmark, was a party to the agreement that UPMC had signed and therefore the insurer should be excluded from the hearings.

Because of what the attorney general’s office called “intense acrimony between the parties,” Highmark and UPMC “refused to sign a common document” and instead inked identical agreements. The attorney general argued that Highmark should have a seat at the table.

A Commonwealth Court ruling on the expiration date is expected by June 14 and so is an appeal to the state Supreme Court, regardless of which side wins.

In February, the attorney general’s office filed a civil lawsuit in Commonwealth Court alleging that UPMC had violated its nonprofit charitable mission by excluding Highmark members from its facilities. The attorney general is trying to force UPMC to open its doctors and hospitals to Highmark members at in-network rates.