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 […]
Read moreBurlington Free Press Dan D’Ambrosio The prognosis for OneCare, Vermont’s latest effort to bring down the cost and improve the quality of health care, is being called into question lately by both doctors and patients. OneCare’s mission is to end traditional fee-for-service health care, which is thought to incentivize doctors and hospitals to perform […]
Read moremyChamplainValley.com BURLINGTON, Vt. – Three separate protests were held across Vermont on Friday, where members of the Vermont Workers’ Center and other advocates demanded that Governor Phil Scott cut the State’s contract with OneCare Vermont. OneCare manages Vermont’s all-payer model initiative, overseeing healthcare reform in the State and distributes money from Medicare, Medicaid and other […]
Read moreVTDigger By Katie Jickling A group of nonprofits are calling on Gov. Phil Scott to abandon Vermont’s all-payer system and the state’s partnership with OneCare Vermont. The state’s health care experiment has added extra bureaucracy and cost, resources that should be directed to increasing Vermonters’ access to health care, five organizations argued in a statement […]
Read moreVTDigger By Katie Jickling All pediatrician Brad Friesen wants to do is care for kids. The business of keeping his primary care practice afloat makes it difficult. Profit margins are thin in the best of times at Pediatric Medicine, where he is a partner, and Friesen said Covid has left the South Burlington practice on […]
Read moreVTDigger By Katie Jickling Vermont’s health care costs continue to soar, and state regulators haven’t done enough to curb them, according to Auditor Doug Hoffer. The average Vermonter now pays more than $9,000 a year for health care. That expense that skyrocketed 167% between 2000 and 2018, according to a report released by Hoffer’s office Tuesday. Housing […]
Read moreBurlington Free Press Dan D’Ambrosio The senior partner at one of the largest primary care practices in Vermont worries that reduced payments from OneCare Vermont, the state’s only accountable care organization, will make it even harder for his practice to survive the coronavirus pandemic. “This is a tough time for everybody, especially when we […]
Read moreVTDigger By Katie Jickling Nurse case manager Nicole Valcour wasn’t hired for her IT skills. But as is the way at the People’s Health & Wellness Clinic, she’s figured it out: helping homeless patients with a shaky Wi-Fi connection, counseling retired volunteers on an iPad set-up from the vacant Barre office. In a pinch, Valcour […]
Read moreVTDigger By Katie Jickling “Murderous,” “unconscionable,” “outrageous”: In no uncertain terms, Vermonters expressed their outrage Tuesday at health insurance companies seeking to raise the cost of medical care during Covid-19. Nine hundred people submitted written comments and more than 50 tuned in to the Green Mountain Care Board’s public hearing, as they asked the state’s […]
Read moreVTDigger By Katie Jickling The Vermont state auditor offered a rebuke of the state’s health care regulators Tuesday, and called for greater transparency and accountability for the state’s all-payer health care system. A 70-page report released Tuesday by State Auditor Doug Hoffer recommended that the Green Mountain Care Board improve tracking quality metrics and administrative costs for […]
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