UPMC Hamot President Jim Fiorenzo says recent changes to management of Erie's two largest hospitals is part of an ongoing process to make the numbers work in the volatile field of health care.
Hamot affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center earlier this year. Just last week Saint Vincent Health Center announced a similar arrangement with the insurance giant Highmark.
Highmark and UPMC are battling for position in western Pennsylvania as both are offering insurance and now provider services in the area.
Fiorenzo says that one inevitable outcome will be that hospitals will require either the plan of their parent company or a neutral provider.
In other words, as early as 2014 Highmark insurance may not be accepted at UPMC facilities including Hamot.
"We are just now morphing into what other parts of the country have already seen," he told us. "Integrated provider and finance systems and patients will have to make a choice."
Fiorenzo also sees trends toward more investment in outpatient services, technology, trauma and emergency room care. Full in-patient bed stays however are on the decline, forcing hospitals to adapt to the changing marketplace.
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