Thank you for the November 14 story on the budget reductions by the University of Vermont Health Network [“UVM Health Network Announces Service Cuts, Blames Regulators,” online]. To cover a $122 million shortfall in revenue traceable to a 1 percent rate decrease in what they can charge insurers, UVM Health Network announced service reductions, including closing a primary care practice in Waitsfield and several dialysis centers in rural hospitals, as well as cutting up to 200 staff and reducing bed capacity in the main hospital.
No reductions to the number or compensation of top executives were announced. UVM Health Networks’s CEO merely said this would be discussed in December when they regularly review incentive-based performance.
Many Vermonters, including UVM Health Network staff, wonder why the highly paid executives didn’t first go after their own very generous compensation, especially given that Medicare reduced the hospital’s rating from five to four stars.
The Form 990 tax return UVM Medical Center filed last August reveals that the president made over $1.8 million, the VP made a little over $1 million, the COO made $904,000 and the CFO made $873,000. Thirteen more execs made between $710,000 and $440,000. By contrast, the governor of Vermont only makes about $222,000.
It’s very hard for patients to imagine that the UVM Medical Center’s budget reductions were made in good faith without significant reductions at the top.
We must wait to see whether and how much UVM Health Network executives will reduce their salaries and bonuses to help alleviate the system’s financial condition. I hope they live up to their stated values, which include communicating “openly and honestly with the community we serve.”
Ellen Oxfeld
Middlebury