Conditional formatting Crosstab row headers

Using CR Developer Xi.

I have a report with a Crosstab in the report footer.

I've created an array variable "highPI" which is populated correctly in the group headers of the report. I've displayed all values in the array at the top of the report footer in order to make sure that the array is being populated.

The values in the array consist of a few of the names that are row headers in the crosstab. I want to highlight the rowheaders if the names are found in the array. here is the code i've placed in the background color formula area

Global Stringvar array highPI;

If {PAM_PROVIDER.PP_PROVIDER_NAME} Startswith highPI then CRRed else CRNocolor 

Even though i know 1 of the row headers should be highlighted, nothing is.

I've used a similar formula in other reports, and it works fine. but this is the first time i've done something like this in a crosstab. I'm wondering if i'm not calling the row header correctly.

any ideas would be appreciated.