Vermont's Green Mountain Care Board has established a 3.75 percent annual cap on spending increases for hospitals as part of the state's new healthcare reform, according to a report from Vermont Public Radio and Kaiser Health News.
The GMCB is the regulatory body that was created from Gov. Peter Shumlin's (D) May 2011 law, which established a single-payor system. Although the board has established the cap at 3.75 percent, Vermont's 14 hospitals want budget increases of 7 percent for the upcoming fiscal year, according to the report.
The GMCB said it may allow some exceptions to the cap if a hospital can prove the increased funds are going toward projects that will lower healthcare costs in the long term. "We have a responsibility to hold down costs," GMCB Chairwoman Anya Rader Wallack said in the report. "So we'll be looking at all of these requests with an eye toward how we can stay within that target, because we don't think Vermonters can afford more than that."
Gov. Shumlin hopes Vermont's single-payor system is fully implemented by 2016, a year earlier than expected.
The GMCB is the regulatory body that was created from Gov. Peter Shumlin's (D) May 2011 law, which established a single-payor system. Although the board has established the cap at 3.75 percent, Vermont's 14 hospitals want budget increases of 7 percent for the upcoming fiscal year, according to the report.
The GMCB said it may allow some exceptions to the cap if a hospital can prove the increased funds are going toward projects that will lower healthcare costs in the long term. "We have a responsibility to hold down costs," GMCB Chairwoman Anya Rader Wallack said in the report. "So we'll be looking at all of these requests with an eye toward how we can stay within that target, because we don't think Vermonters can afford more than that."
Gov. Shumlin hopes Vermont's single-payor system is fully implemented by 2016, a year earlier than expected.
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