Free Republic

PITTSBURGH — The district attorney’s office said a former employee at Highmark hacked into several customers’ accounts, including a school district and stole thousands of dollars. “You put your money in and it’s up to them to safeguard your money and when that doesn’t happen and you lose its detrimental,” said Lori Hickman. Lori Hickman of Butler County is one of eight victims in Highmark’s major data breach. Allegheny County District Attorney’s office charged Zakayah Scott who worked remotely from South Carolina for Highmark Health. Authorities said Scott had access to customers’ personal information including birthdays, addresses and phone numbers....

Attorney general announces legal action in UPMC-Highmark dispute PITTSBURGH - Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro filed a petition to stop UPMC and Highmark from a complete separation – which was set to happen this summer. #BREAKING: Shapiro says court order would ensure that UPMC abides by its charitable contribution obligations to Pennsylvania “Given the effect this dispute between UPMC and Highmark is having on Pennsylvanians, and the imminent expiration of the existing consent decree, we are asking the court to take action,” said Shapiro. “These changes are absolutely necessary to prevent UPMC from inflicting further harm on the public by...

Highmark Inc. is canceling individual health plans in more than half of the Pennsylvania counties in which it has sold the plans on the Affordable Care Act's marketplace, reducing the competition that some experts say is necessary to make the market sustainable. The Pittsburgh-based insurer is no longer selling the plans in 27 of the 49 counties in which it sold them for 2016, according to a Tribune-Review analysis of federal marketplace data. About 70 percent of the insurer's individual marketplace members in Pennsylvania will lose their plans, according to a Highmark spokesman. The plans expire at the end of...

After the Affordable Care Act took effect in 2010, it created a review mechanism intended to prevent exorbitant increases in health insurance rates by shaming companies that sought them. But this summer, insurers are turning that process on its head, using it to highlight the reasons they are losing money under the health care law and their case for raising premiums in 2017. That has ignited an election-year fight between insurers and consumers, who are complaining bitterly about the double-digit increases being sought across the country. The conflicts have been on vivid display at hearings in states like Pennsylvania, where...

Pennsylvania doctors say they will be forced to pay the price for what they deem poor business decisions that caused health insurer Highmark to lose hundreds of millions on customers covered as a result of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. Highmark recently notified doctors it will cut their payments by 4.5 percent for medical care provided to people covered by Obamacare plans. Highmark's 2015 loss on Obamacare plans, which still isn't finalized, is expected to reach about $500 million. Highmark attributes the Obamacare losses to new customers who may not have previously had insurance, and who turned out to...

Highmark Inc. laid off 132 workers in information technology and sales on Tuesday, including 65 in Pittsburgh, saying that it needed to align its workforce with its changing business.

PITTSBURGH — The chief executive officer of Highmark Inc. is facing charges of simple assault and defiant trespass. Kenneth Melani was charged Wednesday in connection with an incident on Sunday. The charges were filed by police in Oakmont. Investigators said Melani went to the home of a woman he was having an affair with, walked in uninvited, started calling her names and got into a fight with her husband. Police said the fight happened on Canterbury Court in Oakmont on Sunday night. According to the criminal complaint, Melissa Myler was hired by Melani in October 2011. The complaint stated that...