Unions Accuse UPMC of Wielding Market Power Against Workers

Interesting story today in which a lot of issues intersect: the competition agenda and anti-trust, labor rights and wages, and health care. Labor groups are alleging that a large health care provider in western Pennsylvanian is using monopsony buying power to drive down health care workers’ wages. (Incidentally, using monopsony power to drive down wages is one of the key arguments used in favor of a hypothetical single-payer model.) It’ll be interesting to see if this argument gets any traction.

Unions Accuse UPMC of Wielding Market Power Against Workers

A coalition of labor groups on Thursday filed an antitrust complaint with the Justice Department against UPMC, the giant Pittsburgh-based hospital employer, accusing the system of using its enormous clout to depress wages and harm workers.

In its complaint, the group, which includes S.E.I.U. Healthcare Pennsylvania, claims UPMC workers are subject to a “wage penalty” because of the health system’s dominance in local markets. The complaint describes nurses who are given heavier workloads than nurses at other hospitals, creating concerns over patient safety, and catalogs what the coalition considers to be labor law violations that it says illustrate the powerlessness of employees to improve working conditions.

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This would be the first case to rely primarily on the argument that a powerful health care employer is using its clout in ways that harm workers, and prosecutors must decide whether they have strong enough evidence to take action. “They’re not going to want to fight a case they don’t think they can win,” said Elena Prager, an economist at the Simon Business School at the University of Rochester who has served as a visiting scholar with the Justice Department.

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Greenbeard said:

Interesting story today in which a lot of issues intersect: the competition agenda and anti-trust, labor rights and wages, and health care. Labor groups are alleging that a large health care provider in western Pennsylvanian is using monopsony buying power to drive down health care workers’ wages. (Incidentally, using monopsony power to drive down wages is one of the key arguments used in favor of a hypothetical single-payer model.) It’ll be interesting to see if this argument gets any traction.

Unions Accuse UPMC of Wielding Market Power Against Workers

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Strong unions help to make a strong America.

Greenbeard said:

Interesting story today in which a lot of issues intersect: the competition agenda and anti-trust, labor rights and wages, and health care. Labor groups are alleging that a large health care provider in western Pennsylvanian is using monopsony buying power to drive down health care workers’ wages. (Incidentally, using monopsony power to drive down wages is one of the key arguments used in favor of a hypothetical single-payer model.) It’ll be interesting to see if this argument gets any traction.

Unions Accuse UPMC of Wielding Market Power Against Workers

Click to expand...

Can't read the article, behind paywall

UPMC is a monster. They are one of the most aggressive businesses being run on the nation right now. They eviscerated Allegheny health with hard ball from hell tactics and wielded power like a club. They went from a tiny system ten years ago to dominating half the state and spreading like the plague eastwards.

It is a large reason why the state approved Geisinger's sale to Kaiser, imo, but that is just a different deal with a different devil.

All healthcare systems use leverage such as this to contain labor prices and frankly all prices in general. If you want to get pissed, look at what they do with payor negotiation. HUP has a reimbursement schedule that is ~30-40% higher than anyone else in the state because of how they use CHOP as blackmail.