Highmark Health is Building the Future of Health Care—From Pittsburgh
Highmark Health is leading a bold transformation of health care—using Pittsburgh as a proving ground for technology, care delivery, and payer-provider innovation.
Highmark Health is a $29 billion blended health organization that includes a large multi-state health plan, Highmark, and a growing regional hospital and physician network, Allegheny Health Network (AHN). Together, Highmark and AHN are creating a scalable model for how health care systems across the U.S. might look in the future: connected, intelligent, and built to solve real patient needs.
Highmark serves over 7 million members across Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia and New York, along with commercial clients nationwide. AHN, created by Highmark Health in 2013, includes 14 hospitals and over 275 care sites, with $2 billion committed to its ongoing hospital and access expansion campaign. The organization recorded nearly 4 million physician visits in 2024 and offers deep strength in oncology, cardiology, neurosciences, women’s health and translational research.
But Highmark Health’s real differentiator is how closely the payer and provider sides work together to test and implement new ideas—at speed and at scale.
“We’re not waiting for innovation to come to us—we’re building it into the core of how we deliver and pay for care,” says David Holmberg, president and CEO, Highmark Health.
Take Free Market Health, a startup backed by Highmark in 2022. Its platform optimizes how patients receive specialty medications by matching them with the most appropriate in-network pharmacy. Less than three years after adopting the Free Market platform, Highmark Wholecare—Highmark’s Pennsylvania-based Medicaid plan—saw a 40% drop in abandoned payer-authorized prescriptions and reduced specialty drug costs for its members.
Highmark targets investments that are designed to fuel change inside the system, backing health tech companies focusing on chronic disease management, care coordination, behavioral health, and more. These solutions are stress-tested in a real-world environment with real patients.
Beyond its own system, AHN is helping to advance the Pittsburgh region’s health tech economy through AlphaLab Health, an accelerator co-run with Innovation Works at AHN’s new innovation campus outside of Pittsburgh. It supports early-stage life sciences startups with initial funding, lab space, clinical mentorship, and access to AHN facilities to validate and refine products. Since launch, AlphaLab Health has helped over 25 companies raise more than $25 million in follow-on capital.
“We’re creating an environment where the best new ideas in health care can get real traction—not just in labs or pitch decks, but in hospitals and exam rooms,” Jeff Cohen, MD, chief physician executive, community health and innovation, AHN says.
Highmark Health and AHN aren’t just adapting to change—they’re driving it. By aligning financial incentives, clinical delivery, and innovation strategy under one roof, they’re delivering faster, more personalized, and more cost-effective care. And in doing so, they’re positioning Pittsburgh not just as a player in health care innovation—but as a blueprint for what integrated, value-based care can look like.
Key Facts/Stats
President and CEO: David Holmberg
7+ million insured members
14 hospitals and 275 care sites
2,500+ employed and affiliated physicians
4 million physician visits in 2024
