UPMC is asking a federal judge in Pittsburgh for extra time to respond to the U.S. Department of Justice's backing of a lawsuit that accuses the health care giant of suppressing wages and controlling labor markets through monopolization.
On Monday, the DOJ Antitrust Division sided with UPMC Hamot Hospital nurse Victoria Ross and other plaintiffs in opposing UPMC's bid to dismiss a two-count civil antitrust lawsuit that was filed in January. A day later, UPMC attorneys asked Pittsburgh federal court Judge Susan Paradise Baxter for a 16-day extension until Oct. 23 to answer the government's 23-page "eleventh-hour statement of interest" in the lawsuit.
Ms. Ross and other plaintiffs allege that UPMC's rapid acquisition of hospitals in Pennsylvania over 20 years has given the health system the muscle to depress wages for nurses and other health care workers, increase workloads and control the labor markets where they operate. The lawsuit, which seeks class action status, seeks to end UPMC's control of the labor markets, recovery of damages as prescribed by federal antitrust laws and costs.
The plaintiffs are represented by the Philadelphia law firm of Levin Sedran & Berman LLP. The Pittsburgh office of Jones Day is representing UPMC.
In the government's filing Monday, the U.S. Attorney in Pittsburgh, Eric G. Olshan, and federal antitrust attorneys in Washington noted that although they "take no position on the facts" contained in the Ross lawsuit, the government was still interested in preserving fair-labor market competition.
"The United States' interest in protecting competition in labor markets is especially strong when it comes to health care workers," according to the filing. "When competition for their labor suffers, resulting in lower pay and even worse working conditions - the health of the nation suffers, too."
In a statement Wednesday, UPMC took issue with the allegations contained in the lawsuit.
"As we have made clear in our motion to dismiss, the plaintiffs' allegations are factually incorrect and legally unfounded," UPMC said.
The lawsuit, which mirrors a complaint filed in 2023 with the DOJ by the Washington-based Strategic Organizing Center and SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, alleges that UPMC exploited its size to control wages and labor markets where its hospitals are located.
UPMC's uses anticompetitive conduct to "prevent workers from exiting or improving their working conditions, to suppress workers' wages and benefits and to drastically increase their workloads through a draconian system of mobility restrictions and widespread labor law violations that lock employees into sub-competitive pay and working conditions," according to the lawsuit. Most of UPMC's "growth in the hospital output and labor input markets has been achieved through anticompetitive conduct."
In its statement, UPMC took issue with the characterization.
"UPMC is among the best places to work in all the regions we serve throughout Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland due to above-industry-average wages and employee benefits, which are designed to support the 100,000 people employed throughout the UPMC health system and their families," UPMC wrote.
UPMC, Pennsylvania's biggest nongovernmental employer, is a $28 billion enterprise that operates 42 hospitals and 800 doctors' offices and outpatient clinics. Washington Health System, which owned hospitals in Washington and Greene counties, was UPMC's most recent acquisition.
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This story was originally published October 2, 2024 at 11:08 PM