How long has UPMC Health Plan been operational?
MS: We ve had our Medicaid product since 1996. We enrolled employees and families of Tri-State Health System in a self-funded arrangement in January 1998 and we sold our first insured lives in July 1998. The Health Plan is the financing arm of UPMC Health System. PND: What were the Health Plan s goals for its first two years, and how do they compare with your results? MS: We had three goals in starting the Health Plan. The first goal was to grow membership. As of July, we have a total of 217,018 members, including 142,608 commercial members and 74,410 Medicaid members. The bulk of our commercial enrollees are in our Enhanced Access HMO product; some are in a traditional point-of-service product and we have a few in a comprehensive product, which is like a typical indemnity plan. Our network has some 3,800 physicians. Our second goal was financial stability. We knew there would be startup costs and we targeted a break-even point. We are ahead of our budgets with regard to projected loss
