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A February investigation by ProPublica revealed that Penn State’s student health insurance provider, UnitedHealthcare, pays the salary of the university employee who coordinates coverage.
Penn State told ProPublica that students “benefit” from the arrangement and that such a relationship is “not uncommon” among student health insurance plans. However, the article highlighted the connection to the insurer was not clear to the public.
In the latest installment of Spotlight PA’s Penn State Transparency Tracker, Investigative Reporter Wyatt Massey asked the university how many university employees are paid by third parties and how the public can know who is paying an employee’s salary.
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Spotlight PA is an independent, non-partisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and WITF Public Media.