Pennsylvania AG reaches agreement with UPMC, advancing acquisition of Washington Hospital

Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry has reached an agreement with UPMC, advancing the acquisition of Washington Hospital.

Henry said the agreement will preserve affordable access to health care in Washington and Greene counties.

UPMC and Washington Health Care Services reached an agreement to integrate Washington Health Care Services into UPMC’s network. The Office of Attorney General reviewed the proposed transaction to ensure compliance with Pennsylvania laws and regulations, and acted on behalf of the public to preserve affordable access to quality healthcare.

“This transaction will keep Washington Hospital open and available to thousands of Pennsylvanians,” Attorney General Henry said. “It is essential that the transaction promotes the interests of patients, hospital employees, and the community. My office did a comprehensive review and reached this agreement with UPMC and Washington Health Care Services to ensure those protections are in place.”

As outlined in the agreement, UPMC Washington, the renamed hospital facility, must negotiate with any willing health insurance plans.

UPMC will continue to honor all existing employment contracts, subject to legal requirements, and may not impose any non-compete agreements more restrictive than those that currently exist within Washington Health Care Services, Henry said.

Washington Health Workers released the following statement:

“We are Washington Health System workers who are deeply dedicated to protecting quality patient care and good jobs for our community. We take great pride in Washington Health, which is absolutely essential for the economy and future of our entire area. That’s why we advocated powerfully, along with our coalition partners, for the Assurance of Voluntary Compliance that UPMC has agreed to as a condition for approval of its takeover of Washington Health. While that agreement has important protections, it should have done more to guarantee our facilities will remain open and no jobs or services will be cut. We are united to hold UPMC accountable to abide by the agreement as well as honor the promises that have been made to our community to invest $300 million and maintain all services, insurance plan access, jobs and union contract standards.

“The healthcare workforce is already struggling with a severe staffing crisis, the lingering effects of the pandemic, turnover, burnout and inflation. Any cuts – such as the service terminations, closures, layoffs and pay reductions that UPMC has carried out across its system – would be devastating to Washington. UPMC must instead, as promised, invest significant resources in our workforce and the care we deliver.

“Because UPMC has consistently gone back on its word with takeovers of other local hospitals, and the Assurance of Voluntary Compliance does not include monitoring and reporting requirements, we want to memorialize the commitments about the merger which have been made to our community that: it will ‘greatly expand the availability of health services’; ‘access to care will not be interrupted, regardless of patient insurance plans’; collective bargaining agreements will ‘stay in place’ and UPMC will engage in ‘good faith bargaining’; employee benefits will ‘meet or exceed those that they receive through WHS; ‘any previous Washington Hospital employee who is currently collecting a pension…will be unaffected’; for non-union workers, base pay will not be reduced; and there will be ‘no’ job cuts.

“We look forward to continuing to work with our allies to hold UPMC accountable: Allegheny County Schools Health Insurance Consortium (ACSHIC), Pennsylvania Health Access Network (PHAN), Debt Collective, PA United, Washington-Greene Central Labor Council, PA AFL-CIO, United Steel Workers, Pennsylvania State Education Association, United Food and Commercial Workers, SEIU 32BJ and the hundreds of patients, families and neighbors who took action.

“The members of our union, SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, are headed into contract negotiations at the end of this year. We expect UPMC to recognize our union, respect our contract and engage in good faith negotiations. We are 100% determined to win a strong contract and continue advocating for quality care and good jobs with a voice at Washington Health.”

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