Current News

by C.B. Hall Vermont Business Magazine A federal court hearing in Burlington Monday, March 7, on the Vermont Railway's (VTR) controversial plan to build a road-salt shed alongside its tracks just north of Shelburne village, left both sides in the suit an opportunity to claim some measure of victory. The Vermont Railway and the town of Shelburne have been battling since January over the railway's right to build the facility, to be located on a 33-acre tract purchased by the railroad in late December.

Vermont Business Magazine ECRI Institute has announced the winners of its fifth annual Healthcare Supply Chain Achievement Award. The prestigious award honors healthcare organizations that demonstrate excellence in overall spend management and in adopting best practice solutions in their supply chain processes.

by Tom Pelham In Campaign for Vermont’s first in a series of "Don’t Agonize, Advocate (link is external)" opportunities, we point to a way to reduce property taxes by at least $88 million and redirect millions in general fund dollars to enhance the seriously depleted teachers retirement pension fund, now only 58 percent funded. Folks may agree with some of these opportunities while disagreeing with others, but the conversation about the state’s fiscal woes should be broader than just raising more taxes and fees on cash strapped Vermonters. In this, our second “Don’t Agonize, Advocate” opportunity, we point to $143 million in health care reductions including tens of millions of dollars in state budget savings at the Agency of Human Services.

Vermont Business Magazine Today, the Vermont House passed H.458 Automatic Voter Registration (AVR) with a strong tri-partisan and unanimous vote. This allows eligible Vermonters who receive their Driver’s Licenses to be automatically registered to vote. This proposal will streamline the federally mandated voter registration at the DMV with a new process in which the state identifies and automatically adds eligible Vermonters to the voter checklist electronically and without any action needed by the voter.

Vermont Business Magazine Three new members of the University of Vermont Board of Trustees started their terms on March 1 bringing with them a wealth of experience in entrepreneurship, investing, technology, molecular chemistry, business and medicine. Briar Alpert, president and CEO of BioTek Instruments, and David Aronoff, general partner at Flybridge Capital, were named by the UVM Board to six-year terms as self-perpetuating members.

Vermont Business Magazine Champlain College ranks 16th nationally and is the only Vermont college on the list of top healthcare administration programs. Master's Programs Guide, an online guide for master's programs, has published a ranking of the 50 Best Online Master's in Healthcare Administration Programs for 2016. Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College in Pittsburgh, PA, leads the ranking, which evaluated and ranked schools based on publicly available information on accreditation, reputation, flexibility, affordability, and return on investment. Valparaiso University's Graduate School in Valparaiso, IN, and Indiana Wesleyan University's Graduate School in Marion, IN, came in second and third respectively.

by Debby Haskins, Executive Director, Smart Approaches to Marijuana in Vermont When recreational marijuana was made legal in Colorado, the governor and other proponents promised that they would keep it out of the hands of youth. It's the same promise Governor Shumlin and other legalization proponents are now making here. Can they succeed? The answer from Colorado is a resounding No. The newly-released National Survey of Drug Use and Health –– with 70,000 respondents, the largest of any other study of its kind –- shows that in 2013 and 2014 the marijuana use rate for Colorado's 12-17-year-olds climbed by 20% over the 2012 rate. In that same two-year period, the use rate for the college-age, 18-25-year-old group increased 17%. Colorado is now #1 in the nation for teenage marijuana use. In fact, Colorado is now #1 in all age groups. 

Vermont Business Magazine Modern Healthcare magazine has ranked the Brattleboro Retreat as 12^th on its 2016 list of the 15 largest private behavioral health providers in the United States. The rankings are reflective of patient revenue in 2014 based on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) hospital data. The Brattleboro Retreat is a not-for-profit organization that had a $62.4 million budget in 2014. In 2014, the year the Retreat first appeared in the Modern Healthcare rankings, the Retreat came in at 14^th (based on 2012 CMS hospital data), and in 2015 the Retreat was 13^th based on CMS numbers for 2013.

Vermont Business Magazine CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) has announced that it will expand access to the opioid overdose-reversal medication naloxone at the end of March at its CVS Pharmacy locations in eight new states: Connecticut, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Ohio, Virginiaand Vermont.  Under a physician-approved protocol permitted by the state, CVS Pharmacy will be able to dispense naloxone to patients in these states without the need for an individual prescription.

Vermont Business Magazine More than 100 community members gathered for Gifford Medical Center’s 110th Annual Corporators Meeting Saturday night and heard that the Randolph-based organization is in great shape and positioned to move ahead smoothly during transition into new leadership. Current Administrator Joseph Woodin, who will leave Gifford in late April to lead a hospital in Martha’s Vineyard, received a standing ovation for his service. Throughout the evening voices representing all areas of the organization and community shared stories and expressed heartfelt appreciation for his years of leadership.

Vermont Business Magazine Mt Ascutney Hospital and Health Center (MAHHC) in Windsor has received a grant of $5,000 from the Mascoma Savings Bank Foundation in support of the Windsor Connection Resource Center (WCRC). The grant will be used to help further the work of the WCRC’s “PATCH” team – a local network of health care providers and social services agencies. The primary goal of this PATCH network, of which MAHHC is a member, is to improve community access to high-quality health care services by making it easier for people to find and connect with providers. “Right now, because there are so many different agencies and programs, it can be hard for people to be aware of all the resources available,” said Jill Lord, RN, Director of Community Health at MAHHC. 

Vermont Business Magazine Limited treatment options and no vaccines exist to treat or prevent a leading cause of severe diarrhea in infants and young children in the developing world: Cryptosporidium, a single-celled intestinal parasite found in soil, food and water that also causes significant illness and death in immunocompromised individuals. The infection it causes – called cryptosporidiosis or “Crypto” for short – has gained significant attention in the global public health realm and attracted funding to develop new antimicrobial agents to treat the parasitic infection, as well as assess vaccine feasibility.