Pittsburgh Giant$ Diverge on Cancer Treatment$

There's room for a lot of reading between the lines here: Highmark, UPMC split over cancer treatment.


In 2005 UPMC and Highmark - both private, non-profit institutions that own the local market - collaborated on treatment guidelines that considered effectiveness first, considered side effects second, and then - with all other factors equal - considered expense. Highmark embraced those guidelines at first, but now they're going different ways.

This is (of course) a corporate argument about choices made to keep Aunt Minnie and Uncle Ralph and Mom and Dad alive, and about how much of Minnie and Ralph's money these non-profits get to keep while managing their deaths treatments.

And yet, it all seems so civilized and progressive when expressed in corporate-buzz-speak.

Good thing they're selfless non-profits that have our best interests at heart.