Current News

Vermont Business Magazine - The Department of Vermont Health Access (DVHA) yesterday identified OneCare Vermont as the successful bidder in its procurement seeking an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) to provide certain Medicaid services as part of the State of Vermont’s efforts to move away from the current fee-for-service payment system to one that pays doctors and providers for keeping people healthy. 

The selection means that the State will enter negotiations with OneCare Vermont; however, it does not bind the State in any way.  “These negotiations are another step toward creating an integrated health care system that pays for value, not volume of services,” said Department of Vermont Health Access Commissioner Steven Costantino.  “The contracting process will ensure that this potential arrangement will benefit Vermont and Vermonters.” 

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Peter Shumlin joined local, state and federal partners in front of the historic Bradley House on Wednesday to announce more than $2.8 million in community development grants to eight communities. A $450,000 community development grant was awarded to the Bradley House, a licensed Level III senior residential care home serving lower income seniors. The critical funding will help with a $5.3 million project made possible through public sources and private fundraising efforts, that will modernize and add seven new housing units. Originally built in 1868 the Bradley House has been serving seniors in the Brattleboro region since 1964.

Vermont Business Magazine - During the Senate-House negotiations Wednesday on legislation to combat the nation’s epidemic of opioid abuse, Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) urged lawmakers to pass legislation that provides real support for rural communities fighting this epidemic.

Members, including Leahy, met for Senate-House discussions on Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act. Leahy offered three additonal ammendments to strengthen Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act for rural communities (see below).

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA) has approved financing of $15.2 million to help Vermont commercial, agricultural and renewable energy economic development projects move forward. The projects total nearly $41 million. Agricultural loans totaling $5.9 million also were approved through the Authority's agricultural loan program, the Vermont Agricultural Credit Corporation (VACC), which provides financing for Vermont farmers, agricultural facilities and forest product businesses.

Vermont Business Magazine - The Clean Water Fund Board is holding a 30-day public comment period on staff's proposed budget for next year's Clean Water Fund using an online survey. The Board will accept comments from June 30th until 4:30 pm on July 30th. Please see below for a link to the questionnaire and supporting documents.

Vermont Business Magazine - Tax payers affected by vendor software issue receive reimbursement. Intuit is contributing $2.375 million, and H & R Block is contributing $44,000 in efforts to amend the inconvenience. 

The Vermont Department of Taxes announced on Tuesday that taxpayers whose 2015 returns were impacted by certain commercial vendor software issues (related to itemized deductions) will not be required to amend or pay any additional tax. The department stopped processing any such amendments that it received after June 29, and any payments received related to such amendments prior to that date will be refunded. A good faith contribution by two of the tax preparation software companies, Intuit and H&R Block, has allowed the department to take this extraordinary action.

Vermont Business Magazine - Daniel P. Jantzen, Executive Vice President of Operations and Chief Operating Officer for Dartmouth-Hitchcock, has been named Chief Financial Officer for the health system, Dartmouth-Hitchcock CEO and President Dr. James N. Weinstein announced today.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Peter Shumlin has appointed Michael Pieciak as the Commissioner of the Department of Financial Regulation (DFR), replacing Susan Donegan whose last day on the job was June 30. Pieciak previously served as Deputy Commissioner of DFR’s Securities Division. In that position he played a lead role in the investigation into the Jay Peak EB-5 projects, which culminated in the State, in coordination with the Federal Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), filing charges against those projects. Pieciak has been called as an expert witness as the federal case unfolds in federal court in Miami.

Michael Pieciak

They claim the Public Service Board chooses utilities over customers

Vermont Business Magazine Some of Vermont's leading environmental organizations issued a blistering response today to the Public Service Board's draft rule for the state's net metering program, most of which is solar. The groups feel that the rules will stifle future renewable energy projects in the state, which will hurt farmers, towns, residential customers and, ultimately, efforts to reduce climate change. They also objected to the "bait and switch" nature of the rules for existing "grandfathered" projects, which eventually will lose their net metering benefit. They said the proposed rules, which if accepted would go into effect next January, threaten "to crater this important Vermont-grown sector of our clean energy economy." Their statement, the PSB Letter and PSB Proposed Rule issued June 30, are below.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health has confirmed the year's first case of human illness due to West Nile virus. The Windsor County resident became ill in mid-June, and was diagnosed with West Nile neuroinvasive disease, a more serious form of the illness that affects the nervous system. West Nile virus is spread through the bite of an infected mosquito. Mosquitos that carry West Nile virus can be found throughout the state. The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets began conducting mosquito surveillance throughout the state in June. So far this season no mosquito pools have tested positive for West Nile virus or Eastern Equine Encephalitis.

by Mike Faher/The Commons The state has lost a long-running battle over emergency planning at Vermont Yankee in Vernon. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on June 23 denied Vermont’s appeals of federal rulings that had allowed the shut-down plant’s emergency operations to shrink dramatically as of mid-April. Regardless of federal action, state officials may have found their own way to continue enhanced emergency operations in the towns around the Vernon plant, having announced last month their intention to bill Entergy for such activities.

But the NRC’s rulings again show that federal regulators won’t force plant owner Entergy to reinstate more-rigorous emergency standards at Vermont Yankee. NRC commissioners also reiterated that federal scrutiny of the plant continues.

Vermont Business Magazine Overall, long term care costs across all care settings in Vermont, including home care, adult day services, assisted living and nursing facilities, are up from 2015. The current monthly average for a private nursing home room, for instance, is $8,897 ($106,764 per year), up 1.56 percent. But assisted living care in Vermont is up 20.9 percent from last year to $4,860 per month ($58,320), or $1,200 more a month than the national average.