Pittsburgh-based UPMC is challenging the Pittsburgh Business Group on Health over a letter it wrote to the New York State Department of Health, which criticized the health system's recent acquisition of Jamestown, N.Y.-based WCA Hospital, according to the Post-Gazette.
New York regulators approved UPMC's takeover of WCAHospital June 9.
A New York-based business advocacy group had asked PBGH, a nonprofit group founded in the early 1980s to address healthcare cost and delivery issues, to provide input on the acquisition deal, said PBGH Executive Director Jessica Brooks.
The group's letter detailed the alleged disturbance that would sometimes occur among employers and residents of Pittsburgh by the often contentious contractual relations between UPMC and health insurance giant Highmark, according to the report.
In a June 15 letter to Ms. Brooks, UPMC Chief Legal Counsel W. Thomas McGough said her remarks to the New York State Department of Health were "gross misinterpretations" that aimed to "poison" the department's deliberations, according to the report. "Indeed, why should PBGH ever be trusted again after launching this attack," Mr. McGough wrote to Ms. Brooks, according to the report.
Additionally, Mr. McGough said Ms. Brooks "intentionally tried to prevent UPMC from responding" to PBGH's comments by submitting its letter three days before the New York department's hearing on the acquisition.
"Our true intent is on behalf of our members," Ms. Brooks said, according to the report.