Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Department of Vermont Health Access officials reminded Vermonters of a key health insurance deadline coming up this week. December 15 (this Thursday) is the last day to sign up with Vermont Health Connect for a health plan that will be effective January 1. Open Enrollment is a time for new customers to sign up for health and dental plans for the coming year. It is also a time for current customers to compare their existing health plan to other options. While Open Enrollment runs through the end of January, customers who sign up for a qualified health plan after Thursday will have a start date of February 1 (if they sign up by January 15) or March 1 (if they sign up between January 16 and January 31).

Vermont Business Magazine Wheels for Warmth, a program that raises funds to help Vermonters heat their homes, announced today that its 2016 tire collection and sale raised $54,717 for emergency fuel assistance programs. Tire collections were held at 15 locations around the state this year. Sales were held at DuBois Construction in Middlesex and, for the second year, at Casella Construction in Mendon. The program sold 2,250 safe, DMV-inspected tires at an affordable cost and recycled 2,630 donated, unsafe tires this year.

Wheels for Warmth photo at DuBois Construction 2015. A DMV inspector sorts tires.

Vermont Business Magazine “‘Implicit bias’ is one factor that may contribute to disparities in the Vermont criminal justice system,” states the final report of the Attorney General’s Working Group on Law Enforcement Community Interactions. Attorney General Sorrell partnered with representatives from other governmental and non-governmental organizations to form the advisory committee and examine the role that implicit bias plays in interactions between law enforcement officers and members of the community. The Working Group’s goal was to make recommendations to the Training Council on how to enhance training that addresses implicit bias. The Working Group met that goal today when it delivered its final report at the Training Council’s quarterly meeting.

Vermont Business Magazine The RE/MAX INTEGRA, New England 2017 Market Outlook Report predicts continued housing market strength in early 2017 across the New England states driven by low interest rates, demand from first-time buyers and a sustained preference for affordable homes close to cities. Vermont has seen mixed results in 2016 after notable improvement in home sale values in 2015. The Burlington, Middlebury and Montpelier have seen prices lag, while Rutland and Manchester have seen them improve. Meanwhile, Days On Market, which is an important indicator of market activity, has shown almost universal improvement. The Burlington area has fallen to only 60 days. A lower DOM is expected to lead to higher prices in 2017.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor-elect Phil Scott today announced the appointments of Thomas D Anderson as Commissioner of Public Safety and Julie Moore as Secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR). Scott also announced that he would reappoint former state Senator Diane Snelling to chair the natural resources board and Andy Pallito as commissioner of finance and management.

Vermont Business Magazine At its meeting on December 6, Vermont Medicaid’s Drug Utilization Review Board (DURB) voted to lift some of the restrictions that currently prevent most Vermont Medicaid patients with hepatitis C from accessing life-saving cures. If the DURB’s recommendation is accepted by Department of Vermont Health Access Commissioner Steven Costantino, many more Vermonters on Medicaid who have the life-threatening disease will gain access to treatment. According to the CDC, hepatitis C kills more Americans than any other infectious disease and Baby Boomers are most at risk.

Vermont Legal Aid’s Office of the Health Care Advocate and a coalition of organizations sent a letter to the DURB in late October asking the Board to review and remove all restrictions on hepatitis C medications that deny patients access to medically necessary care and cause unnecessary harm to Vermonters. 

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Information Technology Leaders, Inc (VITL) and PatientPing, Inc. announce the immediate availability of home health agency patient encounter notifications to the PatientPing care community. Since April, VITL has been providing PatientPing with patient encounter (admission, discharge, and transfer) messages from all of Vermont’s hospitals using existing connections to the Vermont Health Information Exchange (VHIE). PatientPing has used these messages to deliver an average of 8,000 notifications a month directly to providers around the state who are part of the PatientPing community.

Vermont Business Magazine Joseph Perras, MD, has been named Chief Executive Officer of Mt Ascutney Hospital and Health Center (MAHHC). The appointment follows months of collaborative work between the MAHHC Board of Trustees and senior leadership of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health (D-HH) to determine the right leadership for the Hospital. Perras’ appointment was approved by the Boards of both MAHHC and D-HH today. He will assume the CEO position effective January 11, 2017.

Joseph Perras, MD, has been named Chief Executive Officer of Mt Ascutney Hospital and Health Center. MAHHC photo.

Champlain College Report Card: Are we financially illiterate? Was our lack of financial acumen a cause of the Great Recession of 2008 and does it continue to undermine our nation’s economic health? Unfortunately, the answer is yes to all of these questions, but until now, the extent of our financial ignorance had not been quantified. The 2016 National Report Card on Adult Financial Literacy, released Monday by the Center for Financial Literacy at Champlain College, shows that adults in America earned just a C grade. Vermont got a "B" and finished ninth best.

Vermont Business Magazine - by Gerianne Smart Marketing & Public Relation Manager Rutland Regional Medical Center. Rutland Regional Medical Center was established in 1896 with a handful of doctors, one nurse and a few dozen patients. Today Rutland Regional is Vermont’s largest community hospital serving over 228,000 patients a year with the expertise and exceptional caring of over 250 medical staff and 1,300 additional personnel. 

Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont Health Network has named John Grieco as the network’s chief technology officer, effective today, December 12. He most recently served as director of Technical Services and Operations at Partners HealthCare System in Boston. Grieco has more than 21 years of experience in information technology, primarily at Partners HealthCare. He led the technical implementation of the Epic electronic health record rollout at Partners and has successfully fostered collaboration with the 11 hospitals within the Partners HealthCare Network to achieve common goals and build strong relationships to advance their mission. 

John Grieco

by Tom Torti Last week the Blue-Ribbon Commission on Financing High Quality Affordable Child Care sent its final report to the governor and Legislature. The report provides policymakers with recommendations and financing options to make high-quality affordable child care available to all families who need it. The report makes one thing clear: investing in high-quality affordable child care and early education is a social and economic imperative for our state.