Pittsburgh-based health insurance giant Highmark Inc. says its western Pennsylvania hospital network will lose $48 million this year, but hopes to cut that annual loss to $8 million by 2017.
The loss projection is included in a report Highmark filed with the Pennsylvania Insurance Department. The report is a condition of the department’s June decision to let Highmark transfer $175 million from its $5.5 billion in insurance reserves to prop up the eight-hospital Allegheny Health Network.
The report was filed by the state-imposed deadline of Wednesday, but wasn’t publicized until Friday.
The insurance department approved the funding plan after Highmark executives, health care workers and Pittsburgh-area political leaders told Insurance Commissioner Teresa Miller that Highmark’s hospital network was needed to compete with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, which operates western Pennsylvania’s dominant hospital network.
Date: October 8, 2015