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The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports about "the rapid rise and equally rapid descent of the Allegheny Health empire, which became the nation's largest health-care failure when the nonprofit filed for bankruptcy in July 1998.... Built on a strategy that utilized heavy debt and almost total control of one individual and his board cronies, Allegheny bought financially struggling hospitals and medical schools, paid top dollar for physician practices and lived lavishly even as operating losses were mounting and the overall health-care environment was deteriorating.... Allegheny's offices and directors twice upped their liability insurance, from $50 million to $200 million, in the months before the bankruptcy filing...."