UPMC: Dignity + Respect = Inclusion…. Huh?

I drove past a UPMC billboard that said to text “Respect.”

After you text “Respect,” you’ll receive a text from UPMC about their Dignity + Respect Pledge: I will treat everyone with Dignity and Respect. Reply YES + zip to agree.

If UPMC’s recent “non-negotiations” and threats to keep UPMC doctors and hospitals out of Highmark’s network are any indication, the healthcare system isn’t focused on treating the community with respect and inclusion and it surely isn’t a part of their mindset.

Representatives of the system have stated that there will be no contract with Highmark because the insurer plans on taking over West Penn Allegheny Health System.

UPMC says this means the insurer would also be a provider and thus in direct competition with UPMC.

Again, back to the “Respect” theme: Do UPMC’s board and senior management really think we, the community, as owners of the “nonprofit” system, wouldn’t realize that UPMC has been both a provider and insurer for more than ten years? Are they so arrogant to believe it was o.k. for UPMC to be both a partner and competitor of Highmark but it’s not o.k. for Highmark to do the same thing?

In negotiations, both parties can claim to be the good guy while also doing some not so good things. The problem here is that UPMC continues to be hypocritical with both their “non-negotiation” stance and the insult-to-injury “Respect” campaign.

I hope UPMC takes their own Dignity + Respect pledge and begins to treat the community with the respect we deserve, which might just equal inclusion…of doctors and hospitals.