UPMC has one up on the Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins International and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center: It leases two jets for travel to its far-flung medical operations.
Mayo, Hopkins and Anderson staff undergo the indignity and inconvenience of airport screening, commercial schedules, layovers and transfers.
A Hopkins spokesman said it would be "cool" to have a jet. Will a memo to the board extol the "coolness" of riding in the wild blue yonder like Oprah?
We exaggerate not. Stephen Spielberg, Bill Gates and Celine Dion also like the Bombardier Global Express, which can fly long distances nonstop.
Of all the "stars" in the firmament, UPMC may fancy itself the brightest. It reported net income of $459 million for the nine months ending March 31, an increase of $69 million from the comparable period a year earlier.
The health-care and insurance leviathan would not tell the Trib how much it spends on the jet. But a typical lease might cost $280,000.
Per month.
That sum would provide UPMC with 186 round-trip tickets at $1,500 each to its hospital in Sicily -- or a lot of aspirin.
UPMC is a nonprofit institution, based on its provision of medical services for the public good. It has tax exemptions, despite benefits received from tax-financed roads, police and fire services.
We have no problem with its tax status, so far as UPMC behaves consistently with its financial obligations as a nonprofit in this community.
Explanations are due.
