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
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