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Addison Independent By Christopher Ross BRISTOL — It took just six presentation slides by Vermont State Auditor Doug Hoffer to astonish the audience of a virtual healthcare talk hosted by Bristol Democrats earlier this month. State healthcare costs are soaring, transparency is declining and the University of Vermont Health Network (UVMHN) exerts outsize influence on […]

Note from Vermont Health Care for All:  The article below examines the issue of why the legislature has not pursued universal health care since Governor Shumlin pressed the pause button on implementing Act 48, Vermont’s roadmap to publicly financed health care for all.  It mentions the estimated costs (taxes) from the GMC FINAL REPORT for […]

VTDigger By Liora Engel-Smith Kristi Kilpatrick is running out of time. The 36-year-old has benign cysts on her ovaries, a condition the Burlington resident discovered last spring when she landed at the University of Vermont Medical Center emergency department with debilitating stomach pain. The cysts have to come out if she wants the pain to […]

Seven Days Posted By Colin Flanders on Wed, Feb 16, 2022 at 10:04 AM Updated at 4:25 p.m. A state investigation into medical appointment delays has found that patients are waiting an average of two months to see a specialist in Vermont, far longer than the most recent national figures, according to a report released […]

Seven Days As a physician in private practice, Dr. Laura Norris decides for herself how many patients to see each day. She often schedules 30- and 60-minute appointments even though a jam-packed schedule would bring in more money, because she believes that having time to ask patients about their kids, jobs and even their summer […]

Seven Days By Colin Flanders and Chelsea Edgar On a Friday in February, 27-year-old Andrew Charlestream went to the emergency room at the University of Vermont Medical Center with searing abdominal pain. A doctor diagnosed him with kidney stones, then sent him home with pain medication and instructions to follow up with a urologist in […]

VTDigger I thank the VTDigger for the article on the Green Mountain Care Board: “10 years after it was created, has the Green Mountain Care Board worked?” To me, the answer is yes; it has worked and well. The proof here is the letter Mr. John Brumsted, CEO of the UVM Health Network, sent the […]

VTDigger By Kit Norton The administrative costs of running OneCare Vermont, the company that enacts statewide health care reforms, are greater than the Medicaid savings that are credited to its efforts, according to a report issued Monday by State Auditor Doug Hoffer. The 38-page document, which looks at the operating expenses associated with the state’s […]

VTDigger By Katie Jickling OneCare Vermont has had a challenging fall. The group, which manages the state’s health care reform efforts, is nearly three years into a five-year effort to shift the way that medical care is funded. OneCare collects money from private insurance companies, Medicaid, and Medicare, and funnels it to hospitals in monthly per-patient […]

  VTDigger By Katie Jickling State health care regulators are making decisions without taking into account whether Vermonters can afford the health care they need, according to Auditor Doug Hoffer. The Green Mountain Care Board has no “clear and direct consideration of Vermonters’ ability to pay for health care,” according to a memo released Tuesday by the State […]