And how much do you want to bet its branded as "Penn State," unlike how UPMC dropped the branding of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Even dropped the blue and gold colors for purple.
This is interesting with UPMC rapidly expanding in Central PA. Pitt vs Penn State in medicine.
The big difference is Penn State Health is controlled and owned by Penn State University. Pitt only has 1/3rd interest in UPMC, with 1/3 being controlled by the system member hospitals and another third by the Pittsburgh community at large. Highmark will have 1/5 of Penn State Health and PSU the remaining 4/5ths.
UPMC never used blue and gold. It used blue and white originally. I do wish they still used the university seal. Purple doesn't bother me. I'm sure they did expensive market testing on that and it isn't like Pitt has the foggiest clue what its colors actually are. Inconsistency is not good for branding. However, UPMC clearly does not tie the university in with branding as much as other university-associated medical centers do. However, in almost any article not written in Pittsburgh, UPMC is almost always defined as the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center...particularly in national press. Interestingly, the university actually owns the trademark on "UPMC."
Really, all that matters is the ~$200 million a year coming to the university from UPMC, which is unheard of in academic medicine affiliations.
But yes, clearly it will be UPMC competing against Highmark-Penn State in Central PA. They've staked out their claims, and PSU was really screwed when their merger with Pinnacle was blocked. Penn State has few options available and are really squeezed to grow. This is mostly about them selling a piece of their independence in return for capital needed for them to expand their regional practice acquisitions and invest in their facilities at Hershey. They're still not in a great position because they are hemmed in by UPMC Pinnacle, UPMC Susquehanna, Tower (which is aligned with UPMC), Geissinger, and Penn. I expect them to surrender more and more control to Highmark down the road because they simply don't have any markets to grow into. They have to try to keep Hershey as the primary referral hospital of Central PA, through investment in facilities and faculty (and it will be interesting to watch if UPMC Pinnacle tries to chip away at that), because they aren't going to control many referral hospitals themselves.
As far as Highmark, this continues a strategy of a partnerships/affiliation model (which is has been initiated to some degree with Geissinger, Emerus, and Warren General); a seeming shift away from outright acquisition of facilities.
St. Luke's and Lehigh Valley are next to keep an eye on, maybe WellSpan as a target for Highmark/PSU, as well as Temple, which might be looking to unload its hospitals. UPMC probably wants into both the Lehigh Valley and Philly, and certainly into Maryland.
