LETTER: Deja vu all over again?
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, on Oct. 15, reported that UPMC has signed “a nonbinding letter of intent to acquire its first hospital system in the state of Ohio.” That would be the Trinity Health System in Steubenville.
What took so long? After all, this entity has already moved into our neighboring states of New York (Jamestown) and Maryland (Cumberland). And, of course, we remember UPMC’s takeover of our own Washington Hospital not so long ago.
It begins with a “nonbinding letter of intent.” Maybe the Federal Trade Commission and the Ohio State Attorney General’s office will investigate this action. But that doesn’t really matter. The tentacles of monopoly will reach down the Ohio River and envelop Steubenville’s Trinity Health System’s three hospitals along with several of other smaller, associated prizes.
What was it Yogi Berra said, “It’s deja vu all over again”?
Douglas T. Corwin Jr.
East Washington