University Times

About 1,000 UPMC Health Plan participants at Pitt (about 600 employees and their covered dependents) are eligible to retain Highmark doctors, under an agreement that goes into effect Oct. 1. Eligible subscribers also may choose to re-select a UPMC Health Plan option during a one-time exception period.

Information packets were mailed to eligible employees Sept. 20, according to Ron Frisch, associate vice chancellor for Human Resources. The deadline for participants to respond is tomorrow, Sept. 29.

Employees are eligible to re-select a health care plan only if they were patients of certain designated Highmark physicians between July 1, 1999, and June 30, 2000. Only doctors in Highmark's Alliance/Ventures Inc. (AVI) and Premier Medical Associates — about 120 physicians in all — are part of the agreement, Frisch said.

Pitt's contract with Highmark expired June 30, and on July 1 a three-year, sole-provider deal with UPMC Health Plan went into effect. The contract limited Pitt health care subscriber options to UPMC Health Plan selections.

But Highmark officials agreed with UPMC Health Plan officials to allow Pitt patients and their covered dependents to continue seeing Highmark physicians in the two designated medical associate groups.

The two health insurers had reached a verbal agreement earlier this month. (See Sept. 14 University Times.) Along with a letter detailing the re-selection process, the information packet includes a list of the AVI and Premium doctors covered in the agreement and a re-selection form, Frisch said.

For more information, call UPMC Health Plan member services, 1-888/499-6885.

–Peter Hart