Highmark offers cheaper, UPMC-free plan

Come January, Highmark Inc. is giving customers a first taste of life without UPMC. Pittsburgh-based Highmark, Pennsylvania's largest health insurer, announced on Monday some of the details of its revived Community Blue, a new version of an old, select-network insurance product line. The new version could offer premium discounts of up to 25 percent compared to plans that have full access to UPMC's hospitals and doctors, according to Highmark, although brokers are expecting a smaller discount. Most hospitals and doctors in the UPMC healthcare system, the region's largest, will be considered "out of network," however.