Hospital solicitation targets health care fight
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Children's Hospital didn't authorize a request for donations to its free care fund mailed recently to state Sen. Jim Ferlo and at least three others, spokesman Marc Lukasiak said Thursday.
The solicitation targets the ongoing dispute between UPMC and Highmark and claims that families could be facing higher costs for the care of their children.
However, the statement is wrong as it relates to Children's Hospital, whose contract with Highmark doesn't end until 2022.
Mr. Lukasiak said Children's didn't know who was behind the Christmas card-like solicitation.
The card features an unauthorized reproduction of a Rob Rogers cartoon from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The newspaper was not approached for permission to reproduce the copyrighted image and would not have granted permission had it been asked, executive editor David M. Shribman said.
The solicitation also makes reference to "farkleberry," a term coined by radio personality Jack Bogut, who raised money for the free care fund. It "was an odd use of a symbol that has come to mean so much to Pittsburgh," said Mr. Bogut, who received the card in the mail.
Mr. Ferlo plans to ask the state attorney general to investigate the mailing.
First Published December 30, 2011 12:00 am
