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Allegheny General Hospital's Liver Transplant Plan Gets Mixed Reaction

Posted on: Tuesday, 14 March 2006, 15:00 CST

By Christopher Snowbeck, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Mar. 14--Business leaders are voicing mixed reactions to last week's news that Allegheny General Hospital is opening an adult liver transplant program.

While some question whether the region needs another program, considering the huge liver transplant operation at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, others welcome the competition, saying it could help health insurance companies, such as Aetna Inc., that don't have UPMC hospitals in their networks.

Allegheny General's program will be led by the chief liver transplant surgeon at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare Center, which established a program independent of UPMC in 2004. The North Side hospital currently sends between 25 and 35 patients with failing livers to other hospitals for transplants -- some patients go to UPMC, while others receive transplants in Cleveland, Philadelphia and Baltimore.

William A. Jessirer, director of sales and service in the Pittsburgh area for Aetna, said a new program in the region would be "helpful" because it would make the point that a hospital network here that lacks UPMC still can provide advanced care.

"As long as they meet criteria and quality review and are doing all of those important pieces, it really just opens the door for people not having to change a doctor relationship to have that service provided," Mr. Jessirer said.

Dave Scott, a broker with ARMS Insurance Group, seconded the point: "Competition is always great."

But Thomas S. Tomczyk, a benefits consultant in the Pittsburgh office of Mercer Health & Benefits, said employers should be asking how much the new program will add to local health-care costs. If the Allegheny General program does not bring more liver transplant patients to the region -- but instead just redirects patients who would have had transplant operations at UPMC -- the community will be burdened with extra overhead costs.

Allegheny General officials would not say how much they are spending on the project. They expect to do their first liver transplant this summer.

"They're trying to corner more business, but is this market large enough?" asked Mr. Tomczyk.

Doug Moore, an insurance broker with Seubert & Associates in Bellevue, agreed that the new program could help health plans such as Aetna and their members. But, he added: "It seems suspect that the region would need a second hospital to do such a high-end, expensive and complicated procedure."

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Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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