UPMC CEO Leslie Davis recently met with Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, bringing together leadership from Western Pennsylvania’s largest health system and the agency overseeing critical government insurance programs.
The two discussed UPMC’s efforts to roll out new technology, fast-track medical innovations and strengthen community-based care, Davis said in a LinkedIn post Tuesday.
“When the federal government and health systems work together, it opens the door to more sustainable approaches for care,” Davis said. “We’re collaborating to create programs that deliver meaningful, measurable results.”
UPMC and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services did not immediately return requests for comment. It was not clear where or when Davis and Oz met.
UPMC is a $34 billion health care organization with more than 100,000 employees. CMS provides health coverage to more than 160 million Americans and has a budget of nearly $1.7 trillion.
Dan Laurent, a Highmark spokesman, said in a statement Wednesday morning company leaders have met with Oz on several occasions.
Highmark CEO David Holmberg and a handful of other health care executives sat down in June with Oz and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to discuss prior authorization reform.
More than 50 insurers agreed at the time to slim down and speed up the process by which they vet some of the most complex and costly claims. Highmark was among them; UPMC was not.
“We’ve had very substantive discussions with (Oz) and his team about the state of our industry and the unique living health model that Highmark Health is advancing to address the many challenges within our industry, including the need to improve access, create better experiences for patients and clinicians and bring costs down,” Laurent said.