Washington, D.C. — The American Economic Liberties Project today released “Critical Condition: How UPMC’s Monopoly Power Harms Workers and Patients.” The paper is an in-depth examination of how the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) has used its power to drive down wages, working conditions, and the quality of care in Western Pennsylvania, and includes a robust policy agenda for reducing that power and reintroducing competition into the local health care market.

“UPMC employed a slew of anticompetitive and anti-labor tactics to consolidate its power in Western Pennsylvania, and then used that power to degrade pay and working conditions, prevent workers from unionizing, box out competitors, and ultimately lower the quality of care available to local residents,” said Pat Garofalo, Director of State and Local Policy at the American Economic Liberties Project. “Lawmakers at all levels — federal, state, and local — have tools available to rein in UPMC and ensure that Western Pennsylvania workers, patients, and taxpayers are no longer propping up a system that doesn’t serve them at all.”

The paper was released with Congresswoman Summer Lee and Pennsylvania State Representative Sara Innamorato, who are co-conveners of the Pittsburgh Hospital Workers Taskforce. The taskforce held a hearing in September at which dozens of Pittsburgh hospital workers testified about the severity of the workforce crisis in the region.

Policy recommendations include items directly reining in UPMC’s anti-competitive behavior and pricing power, along with ensuring state and federal enforcers can adequately address labor market consolidation, that workers have a voice on the job and the freedom to seek better employment options, and that UPMC lives up to its legal obligations as a non-profit.

Read “Critical Condition: How UPMC’s Monopoly Power Harms Workers and Patients,” here.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.