UPMC Fast Facts: Commitment to the Community

As the region’s health care leader, UPMC is committed to improving the health and well-being of its communities.

Download UPMC Community Benefits Fast Facts (PDF)

Giving Back and Improving Lives

$1.4 billion — in IRS-defined community benefits in Fiscal Year 2019

Annually, UPMC contributes more than $1 billion to make our communities healthier. This amounts to more than 15 percent of UPMC's net patient revenue — a level substantially higher than most peers regionally, statewide, and nationally.

Contributions include:

$479 million — Charity Care and Costs for Those in Need

Committing more to charity care than any other health system in Pennsylvania:

• $102 million in charity care – UPMC cares for 18 percent of patients in Pennsylvania, but provides more than one quarter of hospital charity care in the Commonwealth.
• $377 million to cover unreimbursed costs for Medicaid beneficiaries and other subsidized care

$376 million — Health Programs and Charitable Contributions

Enhancing health and wellness through more than 3,000 free and subsidized programs:

• Immunizations, medications, home visits, and transportation
• Support for seniors, children, and people with disabilities
• Emergency preparedness, smoking cessation, and cancer prevention

$548 million — Medical Research and Education

Sponsoring 96 percent of all hospital-funded research in western Pennsylvania:

• $344 million in direct medical research funding primarily at the University of Pittsburgh
• $204 million in medical education programs to foster the next generation of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other health care professionals

UPMC Insurance Services

• UPMC Health Plan is among the nation’s fastest-growing health plans, serving 3.9 million members. It offers coverage to individual and group health plan members; seniors; low-income individuals and families; as well as those with disabilities. Products include UPMC for Life, UPMC for You, UPMC for Kids — Pennsylvania’s largest CHIP program, UPMC Community HealthChoices, and Community Care Behavioral Health Organization.
• Since its introduction in 1996, UPMC for You has become the fastest-growing Medicaid program in Pennsylvania. It is also the largest Medicaid plan in Pennsylvania. The plan is honored to be one of the nation’s leading nonprofit Medicaid organizations.
• UPMC Health Plan is the largest provider-led integrated delivery and finance system in Pennsylvania.
  

UPMC cares for a disproportionate share of high-need patients:

• 8 out of 10 substance abuse patients in Allegheny County
• Nearly half of pediatric patients from low-income families in Dauphin County
• 7 out of 10 babies born to low-income families in Erie, McKean, and Venango counties
• 7 out of 10 seniors are cared for in Bedford, Blair, and Somerset counties
• 7 out of 10 seniors in Clinton, Lycoming, Potter, and Tioga counties
• 7 out of 10 Medicaid patients in Lawrence and Mercer counties

UPMC is a powerful engine of progress, growth, and prosperity.

$42 Billion Economic Impact

UPMC’s operations have a multiplier effect that ripples through local economies. Every dollar directly spent by UPMC results in more than twice as much impact. 

UPMC’s impact on the region’s economy nearly doubled in five years, from $26 billion in 2014 to $42 billion in 2019.

UPMC Is Addressing the Needs of Communities and Making Them Stronger

UPMC is deeply rooted in its communities, and provides more than 3,000 established programs focused on prevention and healthy living, chronic disease management, and navigating resources. UPMC continues to extend its outstanding health care services to many diverse communities throughout Pennsylvania.

Tackling the Opioid Epidemic with Compassionate Care

• UPMC’s Pregnancy Recovery Center is the first outpatient opioid treatment in the region to wrap addiction treatment around prenatal care — fewer babies are born needing withdrawal medications
• Through the Screening Motivational Interviewing and Referral to Treatment (SMART) Choices program, pediatricians are identifying at-risk kids between the ages of 11 and 18 during annual well-child visits
• In Erie, Blair, Lycoming, and Clinton counties, UPMC is supporting the development of a hub-and-spoke model to help providers deliver Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) to residents battling opioid use disorders, using an award from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration 

Caring for Rural Communities

• Improving access to health care in rural areas through telemedicine — making expert medical care more convenient, saving patients time and miles travelled
• Providing in-home educators to help patients better manage their diabetes
• Participating in a pilot program in rural McKean County to support local hospitals, keep health care jobs in the community, and deliver high-quality care to residents who may be isolated 

Supporting Seniors During Their Golden Years

• Keeping seniors on the go through Wellapalooza events, sponsored visits to the Pittsburgh and Erie zoos, and hosting activities from tai chi to bingo
• Connecting seniors and caregivers to resources — from in-home services to caregiver support — through the Aging Institute Help and Referral Line
• Providing education sessions on a variety of topics from living wills to medication management at Ask the Pharmacist events

Fighting Childhood Obesity

• Launched the Healthy Schools Program at 68 schools in the local Pittsburgh area
• Promoting healthier eating through smarter lunchroom strategies and cooking classes in schools
• “Prescribing” park use for local youth to promote physical activity

Nationally Recognized for Meeting Community Health Needs

UPMC was one of only seven hospital systems from across the country selected by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) to serve as a leading example of how a hospital can successfully impact the health of local residents through community health needs assessments (CHNA).

Two of UPMC’s hospitals were identified by the AAMC as best-practice hospitals in conducting CHNAs, especially in preventing childhood obesity and caring for rural communities.

About UPMC

A $21 billion health care provider and insurer, Pittsburgh-based UPMC is inventing new models of patient-centered, cost-effective, accountable care. The largest nongovernmental employer in Pennsylvania, UPMC integrates more than 90,000 employees, 40 hospitals, 700 doctors’ offices and outpatient sites, and a 3.9 million-member Insurance Services Division, the largest medical insurer in western Pennsylvania. In the most recent fiscal year, UPMC contributed $1.4 billion in benefits to its communities, including more care to the region’s most vulnerable citizens than any other health care institution, and paid more than $800 million in federal, state and local taxes. Working in close collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, UPMC shares its clinical, managerial and technological skills worldwide through its innovation and commercialization arm, UPMC Enterprises, and through UPMC International. U.S. News & World Report consistently ranks UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside among the nation’s best hospitals in many specialties and ranks UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh on its Honor Roll of America’s Best Children’s Hospitals. For more information, go to UPMC.com.