Judge: West Penn must give some information to UPMC
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U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Schwab ruled Wednesday that West Penn Allegheny Health System must provide UPMC with some of the information that its larger rival has requested, but not all of it.
The ruling came in an ongoing 2009 lawsuit West Penn initially filed against UPMC and Highmark, alleging that they had conspired to squelch competition. After Highmark proposed to take over West Penn, the region's second-biggest hospital system dropped the insurer from the lawsuit, and asked Judge Schwab for permission to file an amended complaint focused solely on UPMC.
UPMC then asked for numerous documents and depositions that, it said, might show that West Penn was not acting in good faith by seeking to file a new complaint. West Penn called that a "fishing expedition."
Judge Schwab on Wednesday threw out around half of UPMC's requests, saying it sought information that was not relevant to the question of whether West Penn should be allowed to file a new complaint. West Penn has until Feb. 15 to provide the rest of the information requested by UPMC.
First Published February 2, 2012 12:13 am
