Allegheny Health Network could lose $48M
PITTSBURGH – Highmark Inc., the Pittsburgh-based health insurance giant, said its Allegheny Health 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 network.
Seven of those facilities are in Western Pennsylvania, including Canonsburg Hospital. The others are Allegheny General, Allegheny Valley, Forbes, Jefferson, Saint Vincent and West Penn. Westfield (N.Y.) Memorial Hospital is the eighth.
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.