A group of Vermont legislators is calling on Burlington-based University of Vermont Health Network to reconsider its planned service cuts, NBC 5 reported Nov. 27.
Here are seven things to know:
1. The planned clinical service reductions were announced in response to Vermont budget cuts from the Green Mountain Care Board, which required a $122 million revenue reduction.
2. UVM Health's renal transplant program and Berlin, Vt.-based Central Vermont Medical Center's psychiatric unit will close under the plan, among other reductions. More than $18 million in administrative costs will be cut, according to the plan. Up to 200 jobs could be affected throughout the system, UVM Health confirmed.
3. A group of lawmakers raised concerns in a Nov. 26 news conference and a letter sent to UVM Health President and CEO Sunil Eappen, MD.
"These decisions are being presented with little vision for what will happen to the current and future patients who rely on the services proposed to be cut," the letter read, referencing the psychiatric department and kidney dialysis clinic closures.
4. Sen. Andrew Perchlik highlighted issues with Vermont's healthcare regulation during the news conference, NBC 5 reported.
"One of the things that we want to look at is how the Care Board is regulating the hospitals," Mr. Perchlik said at the conference, according to NBC 5. "Is it just about revenue, or can we have a regulatory framework that works both for the hospitals and for patients that can control costs and not just look at this big revenue number and then just let the regulated entities decide what to cut to meet this overall revenue number?"
5. Dr. Eappen responded to the legislators, saying he shares their apprehensions about what these actions mean for Vermont residents and believes "the current situation signals a broken system in our state," according to his letter shared with Becker's.
6. Dr. Eappen said UVM Health's budgets presented to the Green Mountain Care Board this summer were not approved.
"Since the legally binding budget orders call on us to reduce the revenue we take in, in the budget we are currently two full months into, we have had to make difficult decisions about the care we can continue to provide," he wrote.
7. "Let me be clear: predictable and effective regulation is vital to control health care costs, and we understand that our regulators are under pressure to achieve that goal," Dr. Eappen continued. "But cuts that force us to reduce patient care will not make care more affordable. They will only force patients to wait longer, seek care elsewhere, or in some cases, not get the care they need at all, driving already dangerous gaps in equitable access to lifesaving services."