Keystone Research Center Statement on UPMC’s Negative Impact on Healthcare Industry in PA

In response to the release of a new report documenting the negative impacts of UPMC’s size and industry dominance on Pennsylvania healthcare consumers and workers, Stephen Herzenberg, Keystone Research Center economist and executive director, issued the following statement:

“This important report pulls together the overwhelming evidence that UPMC uses its outsized corporate power to hold down wages, overcharge patients, and overstretch healthcare staff. (The new report builds on our earlier report.)

UPMC’s response—reiterating a recent announcement that it will raise wages to a minimum of $18 per hour in some markets by January 2025—is also tone deaf. (Based on Federal Reserve projections), that amount would only keep pace with inflation since UPMC minimum pay reached $15 per hour in January 2021. In other words, UPMC wants credit for continuing to pay many of its workers low real wages, while paying executives exorbitantly.

The new report’s recommendations—that policymakers at all levels use their authority to rein in UPMC corporate power and also support workers’ brave efforts to organize in the face of intimidation and coercion—should be fully implemented. Because of UPMC’s size and influence, that is a path to more middle-class jobs not just at UPMC but at other healthcare providers and service organizations. It is also a path to higher quality, more affordable health care.”