Highmark sues UPMC for cancer treatment 'overbilling'

Highmark's attempt to recover, by way of a lawsuit, hundreds of millions of dollars in chemotherapy-related "markups" paid to UPMC over the past four years could be a "landmark and precedent-setting event," according to a medical billing expert. But that precedent will be established only if Highmark wins its case and the money — and prospects for such a victory are hard to handicap, because the lawsuit itself is so novel. On Wednesday, Highmark Inc. sued UPMC over alleged "pricing manipulation" related to the way Pittsburgh's leading hospital system bills for oncology and cancer-related treatments.