On May 18, 2023, Strategic Organizing Center (SOC)—which is a coalition of labor unions Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Communications Workers of America, and United Farmworkers of America—as well as SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania filed a complaint against University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) with the Department of Justice (DOJ). UPMC is a nonprofit cross-market system that operates as health care provider and insurer with forty hospitals in Pennsylvania, New York, and Maryland.  

The complaint urges the DOJ to investigate whether UPMC has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act, which prohibits monopolies and attempts to monopolize. The unions allege that UPMC’s monopsony power has enabled them to engage in anticompetitive pay practices, such as as noncompete clauses, do-not-rehire blacklists, and suppressing collective-bargaining efforts, while maintaining sub-competitive working conditions. The complaint also alleges that UPMC has monopoly levels of market share in multiple markets, and that it uses its market power to harm rival medical providers and health plans. Furthermore, the unions suspect that UPMC’s conduct has eroded the quality of patient care.  

Amending the act of July 19, 1979 (P.L.130, No.48), entitled “An act relating to health care; prescribing the powers and duties of the Department of Health; establishing and providing the powers and duties of the State Health Coordinating Council, health systems agencies and Health Care Policy Board in the Department of Health, and State Health Facility Hearing Board in the Department of Justice; providing for certification of need of health care providers and prescribing penalties,” in licensing of health care facilities, providing for hospital pricing transparency; providing for acquisition of health care facilities; and imposing duties on the Department of Health and the Attorney General.

An Act prohibiting the enforcement of a noncompete covenant entered into by a health care practitioner.

Amending the act of July 19, 1979 (P.L.130, No.48), entitled “An act relating to health care; prescribing the powers and duties of the Department of Health; establishing and providing the powers and duties of the State Health Coordinating Council, health systems agencies and Health Care Policy Board in the Department of Health, and State Health Facility Hearing Board in the Department of Justice; providing for certification of need of health care providers and prescribing penalties,” in licensing of health care facilities, providing for hospital pricing transparency; providing for acquisition of health care facilities; and imposing duties on the Department of Health and the Attorney General. Requires prior notice and approval of certain acquisitions of a hospital or hospital system.