Hide Transcript Show Transcript

CONSTITUENTS. >> PAUL O’NEILL WAS PRESIDENT BUSH’S TREASURY SECRETARY. HE ALSO WORKED FOR PRESIDENTS FORD, REAGAN AND NIXON AND RAN ALCO BUT HE SAYS HIS 18 MONTHS ON THE UPMC BOARD WERE UNIQUELY FRUSTRATING. HE COULD NOT GET HOSPITAL OFFICIALS TO ANSWER BASIC QUESTIONS ABOUT WORKER SAFET >> WHAT DID THAT TELL YOU ABOUT UPMC >> IT TOLD ME TO LEAVE. SO AFTER 18 MONTHS I QUIT IN DISGUST. >> HE SAYS UPMC CEO JEFFREY ROMOFF HAS ABSOLUTE CONTROL AN NONE OF THE BOARD MEMBERS QUESTIONED HIM AT THEIR MEETINGS. >> IT WAS SHOW AND TELL. YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO ASK QUESTIONS. >> LAST WEEK O’NEILL FIRST SOUNDED OFF ABOUT ROMOFF TO THE POST-GAZETTE. >> YOU USED THE WORD EVIL TO DESCRIBE HIM. >> WELL, I THINK HE IS. >> WHY? >> BECAUSE I THINK IT’S UNCONSCIONABLE FOR ANYBODY TO BASICALLY WITHHOLD NECESSARY CARE FROM INDIVIDUALS ON SOME PHONY BASIS THAT THEY DON’T HAVE THE RIGHT INSURANCE COMPANY NA ON THEIR POLICY. HE WANTS TO DESTROY COMPETITION. HE WANTS TO BE THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN. >> O’NEILL SAID BOARD MEMBERS ARE AFRAID TO SPEAK UP. >> BOARD MEMBERS WHO HAVE WEALTH OF HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS ARE NOT WILLING TO TAKE THIS GUY O >> THEY ARE FRANKLY AFRAID OF HIM? >> YES. >> BECAUSE HE COULD HARM THEM IN SOME WAY. >> YES. >> UPMC SPOKESMAN PAUL WOOD SAID, MR. O’NEILL’S HARANGUE AGAINST UPMC IS MISGUIDED AND UNINFORMED. HE SERVED ON THE UPMC BOARD FOR ONLY A VERY SHORT TIME MORE THAN 15 YEARS AGO AND HE IS SIMPLY OUT OF TOUCH WITH THE CURRENT STATE OF UPMC. O’NEILL ALSO HAD HARSH WORDS FOR MAYOR BILL PEDUTO AND COUNTY EXECUTIVE RICH FITZGERALD WH HAVE NOT SPOKEN OUT PUBLICLY AGAINST UPMC. THEY’VE DEMONSTRATED -- >> THEY’VE DEMONSTRATED NO LEADERSHIP ON THIS ISSUE. >> BOTH THE MAYOR AND I HAV SPENT YEARS, MANY YEARS, HAVING MANY MEETINGS WIT FOLKS FROM UPMC, FOLKS FROM HIGHMARK. WE TRY TO GET ANOTHER MEETING BEFORE THIS HAPPENED AND WE WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO. >> A SPOKESMAN FOR MAYOR PEDUTO REFUSED TO COMMENT. O’NEILL SAYS HE HOPES HIS DECISION TO SPEAK OUT WILL PROMPT OTHER POLITICAL AND BUSINESS LEADERS TO AIR THEIR CONCERNS ABOUT THE UPMC-HIGHMARK SPLIT. MORE ON THIS AT WTAE.COM AND OUR MOBILE APP INCLUDING MORE FROM UPMC ABOUT WHY THEY THINK O’NEILL IS W

Advertisement Former UPMC board member calls CEO Jeffrey Romoff 'evil' Paul O'Neill: Board members afraid to criticize Romoff over Highmark split Share Shares Copy Link Copy

A former UPMC board member is speaking out about the hospital chain’s split with Highmark.Paul O’Neill – a former U.S. treasury secretary and Alcoa CEO – had harsh words for UPMC and its leadership.O’Neill said his tenure on the UPMC board was frustrating because he could not get hospital officials to answer basic questions about worker safety.“So, after 18 months I quit in disgust,” he said.O’Neill said UPMC CEO Jeffrey Romoff had absolute control, and none of the board members questioned him at their meetings.“It was show and tell. You're not supposed to ask questions,” he said.Last week, O'Neill told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Romoff was “evil.” “I think he is (evil),” O’Neill told Action News Investigates. “I think it's unconscionable for anybody to basically withhold necessary care from individuals on some phony basis that they don't have the right insurance company name on their policy.”“He wants to destroy competition. He wants to be the only game in town.”O'Neill said UPMC board members are afraid to speak out about the split with Highmark.“Board members who have wealth of hundreds of millions of dollars are not willing to take this guy on,” O’Neill said, adding that they are afraid of retribution from Romoff.O'Neill also had harsh words for Mayor Bill Peduto and County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, who have not spoken out publicly against UPMC.“They've demonstrated no leadership on this issue,” he said.Fitzgerald responded: “Both the mayor and I have spent years, many years, having many meetings with folks from UPMC, folks from Highmark. We actually tried to get another meeting before this happens and we'll continue to do so.”Responding to O’Neill, UPMC spokesman Paul Wood issued this statement:"Mr. O’Neill’s harangue against UPMC is misguided and uninformed. He served on the UPMC Board for only a very short time more than 15 years ago and he is simply out of touch with the current state of UPMC. UPMC is proud of the fact that it is widely recognized as one of the top healthcare organizations in the country and is actively sought out by patients from around the world. UPMC’s excellence is demonstrated by its decades-long inclusion as a U.S. News & World Report “Honor Roll” hospital and most recently by UPMC Presbyterian’s recognition by Leapfrog as a top-ranked “A” rated hospital on quality and safety. While UPMC’s flagship hospital (UPMC Presbyterian) earned an “A”, Highmark’s flagship hospital (Allegheny General Hospital) was rated a “D”. A patient at a “D” rated hospital has a 92% greater risk of avoidable death than a patient at other medical facilities. Perhaps Mr. O’Neill should direct his concerns about hospitals in this region to those “D” rated hospitals."No hospital across the nation does more for its community than UPMC does for Pittsburgh and the other communities it serves. UPMC provided $1.2 billion in IRS-defined community benefits in 2018—or more than $3.3 million a day—including more care to the Pittsburgh region’s most vulnerable citizens than any other health system."In response to UPMC’s statement, Allegheny Health Network spokesman Dan Laurent said this:"It’s unfortunate but not surprising that Mr. Wood feels the need to denigrate other health care providers as a means of deflecting from UPMC’s failure to live up to its supposed charitable mission. That said, it’s worth providing you with some context in the event you are unfamiliar with Leapfrog. "Some hospitals and health systems (roughly 50%) do not submit data to Leapfrog’s annual survey. AHN has traditionally not done so due to the time commitment it requires. For those providers who do not complete the survey, Leapfrog pulls information from the CMS data base and that information can be quite dated. I believe the latest grades for hospitals not submitting data are based on some CMS data from as far back as 2015. "There are a lot of different hospital ratings agencies and it’s clear that different evaluators can come to different conclusions, based on how they weight different safety metrics, timing of data and so forth. For example, in the most recent CareChex 2019 hospital quality report, Allegheny Health Network is the highest-rated health system in Western Pennsylvania for Patient Safety in Overall Surgical Care, Cancer Care, Heart Failure Treatment, Pneumonia Care, and Pulmonary Care."In the same 2019 CareChex ratings, AGH is the No. 1 hospital in Western Pennsylvania for Patient Safety in in Overall Medical Care, Gall Bladder Removal, Heart Attack Treatment, Stroke Care, and Trauma Care. It’s also rated the number one hospital in all of Pennsylvania for Patient Safety in Organ Transplants and Trauma Care. Allegheny Valley Hospital is rated among the Top 10% of hospitals in the nation for Patient Safety in Overall Hospital Care. Saint Vincent Hospital is rated the No. 1 hospital in Erie for Patient Safety in Cancer Care, Heart Failure Treatment and Major Neurosurgery. Jefferson Hospital is rated the No. 1 hospital in Western PA⁺ for Medical Excellence in Major Cardiac Surgery and is rated among the Top 10% of hospitals in the Nation for Patient Safety in Major Cardiac Surgery and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. "Jefferson Hospital also just received Healthgrade’s Patient Safety Excellence Award™ for 2019, recognizing it as one of the top hospitals in the nation for providing excellence in patient safety by preventing infections, medical errors, and other preventable complications."