It is frightening that UPMC continues blocking those insured by Highmark from UPMC facilities and doctors. How can UPMC discriminate against Highmark and those it insures while enjoying nonprofit status in the same health-care field?
End Stalemate – Tribune Review
Author Archives: Maria Montano
Stress for Patients – Post Gazette
No family should have to go through this, and yet this disruption of care is what potentially hundreds of thousands of patients face come 2015. It’s unconscionable what UPMC is doing, but it is also unconscionable that Gov. Tom Corbett has let this battle drag on, with more and more patients as collateral damage.
Stress for Patients – Post Gazette
UPMC protesters get case dismissed – WTAE
Although the protestors had offered to perform community service, the judge told them that he considered their social activism itself to be a form of community service.
UPMC protesters get case dismissed – WTAE
U.S. Secretary of Labor Meets with UPMC Workers
Today, U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez met with UPMC workers. Secretary Perez listened to workers’ stories in their struggle for fair wages and better working conditions that will strengthen Pittsburgh’s middle class and bring thousands out of poverty.
As Veronica Shields, who works as a pharmacy technician at UPMC Mercy Hospital, shared with Secretary Perez, “I have always wanted to be part of making people well. As a pharmacy tech, I make sure that patients get the medicine they need to heal. I love my job and I am proud of the work that I do. UPMC workers aren’t looking to be millionaires, but we believe we deserve enough to get by. But that is not what we get at UPMC. Right now, we worry about paying every bill and stay up at night thinking about what would happen if our car broke down. Many of my coworkers couldn’t handle a financial emergency like that.”
Veronica is not alone. Latasha Tabb, who works at UPMC Children’s Hospital, has said, “My husband and I have a young son and I feel like I’m fighting for his future. We need UPMC to do better so my child can have a chance at a good middle class life. Many of my coworkers struggle with making ends meet, and are working two jobs, or picking up as much overtime as they can, and still have to use food banks just to feed their families. It isn’t right that someone working full time hours at UPMC is living in poverty. UPMC has the ability to ensure that we can support our families, but instead it has chosen to hold our entire community back by paying poverty wages.”
Recently we have seen businesses and policymakers – from Seattle to Washington, DC – recognize what Pittsburgh knows: when workers are paid a living wage, the economy grows. Here in Pittsburgh, our largest employer has the opportunity to be a national leader in ending income inequality. By paying all of its workers a minimum of $15 an hour, UPMC could help lift thousands of workers out of poverty, provide millions in new tax dollars for Pittsburgh public schools, and drive up to $53.4 million in new economic activity in our region.
Reverend Rodney Lyde of Baptist Temple Church, who joined the meeting today, said, “It is time for UPMC to start living up to its responsibilities as Pittsburgh’s largest employer and tax exempt charity by using its power and wealth to help re-build struggling neighborhoods and lift workers into the middle class with good jobs for a strong and healthy Pittsburgh.”
Stop the UPMC lockout of patients with a competing insurance card
Lynn Kiesel is a 24 year old woman with spina bifida who recently found herself escorted out of UPMC Mercy by security and denied the MRI she needed for her care.
UPMC is refusing to treat patients like Lynn, who carries the “wrong” insurance card. The cost of being out of compliance with UPMC’s plan to dominate the healthcare market? No care.
“I was informed in a very public area that I would not be permitted to have my tests because of my Community Blue Highmark insurance,” she testified at a recent state senate hearing on healthcare access. “I was told I had to leave and was escorted out of the hospital.”1
Our community is standing up to UPMC executives who are using patients as pawns in its plans to build a healthcare monopoly in our city. Dr. Dennis Gabos, a UPMC physician, is publicly calling on UPMC2 and the state legislature to hold UPMC accountable to its charitable mission. Gabos says:
“In 2013 we witnessed something unprecedented in my 26 years of medical practice. In violation of its own code of conduct, UPMC-Corporate locked out Highmark’s Community Blue patients, refusing to see them even when they desperately offered to pay cash for services”3
The time has come for the UPMC Board of Directors to enforce UPMC’s code of conduct and medical ethics by ensuring treatment for all patients in our community.
Sign our open letter to the UPMC Board and let them know you think it is time for them to put the strength and health of our community first.
Together we can Make it Our UPMC
In The News:
UPMC Refuses to attend hearing on healthcare access1
A Tale of Two UPMCs2
UPMC Doctor Criticizes corporation’s direction3
Dr. Gabos has bravely spoken for patients and colleagues
$15.00 can change Pittsburgh
UPMC is our city’s largest charity, landowner and employer. It employs 43,000 people here in Pittsburgh—more than twice the number of people working at the next largest employer.
What would happen if the region’s largest employer stopped paying thousands of workers poverty wages and instead paid no one less than $15.00 an hour?
Take a look. This new graphic shows why UPMC raising wages is key to building a strong and healthy Pittsburgh.
Share this powerful graphic on Facebook
We need UPMC to improve jobs and raise wages for its workers. The future of our city depends on it.
Can you sign onto our open letter to the UPMC Board of Directors – and stand up for good jobs for a strong and healthy Pittsburgh?
Together we can Make it Our UPMC.
Pittsburgh’s Nonprofit Pirates – In These Times
A hospital behemoth dominates the city, pays no taxes and does little for its lowest-paid workers.
BY REBECCA BURNS
Pittsburgh’s Nonprofit Pirates – In These Times
UPMC WORKERS BREAK FAST FOR OUR FUTURE
Surrounded by 100 faith leaders, community members, elected officials and labor leaders, UPMC workers broke their week-long fast for good jobs at UPMC Friday morning. Supported by their co-workers, seven-day fasters Mary Hughes and Chaney Lewis led a procession around UPMC’s headquarters. The procession had five distinct stops, each stop highlighting the injustices UPMC workers face every day at the healthcare giant.
UPMC workers have been fasting outside UPMC’s headquarters in downtown Pittsburgh to shine a light on the immorality of poverty and how UPMC is holding our community back by paying many of its workers too little to live on.
“These past seven days have been about embodying the hardships of all UPMC workers in a form that cannot be ignored,” said faster Mary Hughes, a medical transcriptionist.. “It is immoral that workers can’t feed their families and are choosing to go hungry so their children can eat. This suffering must end and UPMC needs to improve jobs now.”
The interfaith vigil was part of Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network’s Love Thy Neighbor campaign, a clergy-led effort of action and prayer aimed at calling on our region’s largest charity to do more for the city of Pittsburgh. Father Eric McIntosh, who also fasted for the week, led the interfaith vigil. “UPMC must end the suffering of its workers by paying all of its employees a family-sustaining wage,” said Father Mcintosh. “We cannot continue to go about our daily lives ignoring the grave injustice that UPMC is inflicting on members of our congregations, of our communities, of our city.”
“My co-workers and I may not have the connections or the money that UPMC has, but we have the strength, the determination, our bodies and even our hunger as part of this fight,” said faster Josh Malloy, a housekeeper at UPMC Mercy. “We are not going to stop raising our voices until UPMC changes the way it treats all of its employees.”
Together, we can Make it Our UPMC.
Inside the Fast for Our Future – Veronica Shields
The sixth day of the Fast for Our Future brought a real outpouring of encouragement and support for the brave fasters. The companionship and solidarity of those who have sat with, cared for, or sent messages to the fasters have helped them to stay strong through their journey. Among today’s supporters were State Rep. Erin Molchaney, Unite Here, and labor historians from the Battle of Homestead Foundation. Fasters were also lifted up by Fred Redmond, International Vice President of the United Steel Workers, who told them that their historic action gave hope to people everywhere, not just at UPMC.
VIDEO: Watch fasters meet with supporters on day six of Fast for Our Future
Veronica Shields, a pharmacy tech at UPMC Mercy, has always wanted to help make people well. She does that by mixing chemotherapy treatments, IV solutions, and other compounds that are part of many patients’ treatment.
Veronica is fasting because she believes that UPMC can do better by their employees and the entire city. “The fast is a silent but powerful commentary on the dedication of UPMC workers,” Said Veronica “We are building a better tomorrow, not just for ourselves, but for all of Pittsburgh.”
Workers are fasting until 8:30 AM on Friday. To break the fast, faith leaders in the Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network will lead a prayer vigil outside the U.S. Steel Tower. Can you join them?
Interfaith vigil marking the end of the Fast for Our Future
Friday, April 18th 8:30 AM
600 Grant St. UPMC Corporate Headquarters
You can RSVP for the event on Facebook – click here
Together, we can Make it Our UPMC
Inside the Fast for Our Future – Josh Malloy
The cold and snow aren’t stopping the brave UPMC workers fasting this week to shine a light on the hunger and sacrifice they and their coworkers experience every day. Though they are increasingly tired and weak, their determination remains strong and their spirits were lifted by visits from adjunct professors at Duquesne University, students from the University of Pittsburgh and friends from Fight Back Pittsburgh. The Reverend William Spencer of Braddock brought greetings and congratulations from Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network and helped fasters to meditate on the power of ordinary people.
“My neighbors’ fight is my fight,” said Rev. Spencer, “and UPMC needs to improve jobs now.”
Josh Malloy, a housekeeper at UPMC Mercy, works to make sure the emergency rooms are clean and sterile so patients have top quality care. “I want to contribute to my community, but I can’t because on UPMC’s wages I need to work overtime just to cover my expenses,” he said. Like many of his co-workers, Josh wants a job that lets him support a family – and have time to see his family.
Josh is fasting with his coworkers to help focus attention on the immorality of poverty. He wants to be part of making Pittsburgh a city where workers and their families can thrive. He’s calling on UPMC to use its power and wealth to help lift workers into the middle class.
Workers are fasting until 8:30 AM on Friday. To break the fast, faith leaders in the Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network will lead a prayer vigil outside the U.S. Steel Tower. Can you join them?
Interfaith vigil marking the end of the Fast for Our Future
Friday, April 18th 8:30 AM
600 Grant St. UPMC Corporate Headquarters
You can RSVP for the event on Facebook – click here
Together, we can Make it Our UPMC