UPMC and Trinity Health System, a three-hospital entity owned by CommonSpirit Health, have signed a nonbinding letter of intent to pursue an integration.
The tentative plans were announced Wednesday, but early talks had been reported weeks ago by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Conditions surrounding the negotiations or any potential terms being discussed were not disclosed in the announcement.
Still, any agreement would be noteworthy for granting UPMC a foothold in Trinity’s home market of Ohio. Trinity Health System and one of its hospitals are based in Steubenville, with two more hospitals in Pleasant Heights and Dennison—all on the eastern side of the Buckeye State. The system also includes urgent care, behavioral health and physician office facilities.
“Over the next several months, both entities will engage in discussions to work towards a definitive agreement, pending customary regulatory review and approvals,” the parties wrote in their announcement. “Trinity Health System and UPMC leaders hope to complete the affiliation as soon as possible.”
The organizations said CommonSpirit and Trinity’s leadership had begun looking earlier this year for a regional health partner that could flesh out the member system’s services while keeping “high-quality healthcare sustainable and locally available not only for today, but for the future generations.”
UPMC and Trinity have been clinical collaborators for more than 20 years, with the announcement highlighting partnerships that brought UPMC’s cancer treatment and advanced orthopedic services to Trinity’s communities.
Both CommonSpirit and UPMC are among the country’s largest nonprofit health systems.
The former operates 138 hospitals and more than 2,300 care sites across 24 states. Last month, it recorded an operating loss of $687 million on about $40 billion of total operating revenue for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025.
UPMC runs more than 40 hospitals and 800 clinic sites as well as an integrated insurance division that comprises a little less than half of its revenues. The organization logged a $399 million operating loss on about $30 billion of revenue across 2024, and, now, halfway through 2025, has broadly flipped those losses.