Current News

by Olga Peters/The Commons, Brattleboro Vermont’s health care system is in flux. The state’s path to reform the system — to increase access, prevent disease, and contain costs — has come with as many potholes as advances. The state announced increases in premium costs for Blue Cross Blue Shield (5.9 percent) and MVP (2.4 percent) insurance plans August 14. And right next to this announcement, state officials highlighted forward movement on a backlog with its online health insurance exchange, Vermont Health Connect (VHC).

The dance of stepping forward and back has led to frustration for some users, leading to the question: Is the two-step a natural part of change or a system broken beyond repair?

The ultimate goal of shifting Vermont’s health-care system has remained “to improve health and save money,” said Karen Hein, M.D. during a phone interview from her home in Halifax.

Vermont Business Magazine Standing at the intersection of State Drive and Main Street, Governor Peter Shumlin Tuesday morning congratulated the community of Waterbury on the opening of South Main Apartments and beginning construction of the Hunger Mountain Children’s Center. At the conclusion of the event, he handed keys to a family moving into one of the new affordable homes. The projects each were supported by $1 million grants of Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funds from the Agency of Commerce and Community Development.

“As we approach the fourth anniversary of Tropical Storm Irene, it’s important to mark our progress,” Shumlin said. “These long term recovery projects are the result of years of hard work and are restoring much needed affordable housing and services for children and families.”

Vermont Business Magazine Joan Goldstein, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Economic Development, announced today that Gene Fullam has joined the department as director of the Vermont EB-5 Regional Center. Before moving to Vermont from New York City nearly two years ago, Fullam worked for several notable investment banking houses, both domestic and international, including Salomon Brothers (Citigroup), Hongkong Shanghai Bank, Lehman Brothers and Standard & Poor’s Corp. In these roles, Fullam gained extensive corporate finance experience through providing advisory assistance to institutional issuers and investors for mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings and private placements, recapitalizations and strategic development as a bond analyst, strategist and investment banker.

More recently, Fullam has served as a consultant for both non-profit and for-profit organizations. He grduated from Boston College in 1979.

by CB Hall vtdigger.org An Al Jazeera America report about a Montpelier mother who was denied parental rights has spurred debate about how Vermont parents with disabilities are treated by the Department for Children and Families. For the past five years, Alice Goltz has worked as a crossing guard for Union Elementary School in Montpelier, interacting each school day with dozens of children ranging in age from 5 to 12. But she has no right to visit her own 8-year-old daughter, who was adopted by a Chittenden County couple.

University of Vermont A $3.1 million grant awarded to the University of Vermont and the University of South Carolina by the National Institutes of Health could play a part in curbing the nation’s obesity epidemic, expected to cost the United States about $900 billion by 2030, if present trends continue. The five-year grant will fund research to determine if adding economic incentives to online behavioral weight-loss programs will enable them to achieve the same positive results as their in-person equivalents.

Vermont Business Magazine The state of Vermont has received a $174,000 grant from the Small Business Administration to assist small businesses reach international markets. This marks the fourth time the state has been awarded a grant through the SBA’s State Trade and Export Promotion Program. STEP’s goal is to increase the number of exporters in the U.S. and increase the value of exports. Vermont has received more than $900,000 since STEP was created as a result of the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010.

The grant will be managed primarily by the Department of Economic Development, a division of the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development. The Department of Economic Development will use the funds to participate in foreign trade missions, export training and compliance as well as company website upgrades to meet the international market.

Vermont Business Magazine While students taking the latest statewide educational assessment in English all scored above 50 percent in proficiency, only in grade 3 did students reach that level in math, with students in grades 6 and 11 scoring below 40 percent. Today, Secretary of Education Rebecca Holcombe announced statewide results for the 2014-15 Smarter Balanced Assessment. This new, computer adaptive test was developed by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, a partnership of 31 states plus the US Virgin Islands and the Department of Defense Education Activity Office.These tests, which were administered this spring in 18 states, the US Virgin Islands and Department of Defense schools, provide the first test results aligned with the Common Core State Standards. Over time, these tests will provide teachers and parents with a more reliable and accurate snapshot of how their kids are performing in English Language Arts and Mathematics.

by Sarah Wojcik, Ski Vermont Last season Vermont resorts focused on enhancing their already superior snowmaking systems, allowing them to make more snow with less energy with the help of Efficiency Vermont. Those improvements, paired with the most snowfall in the continental US, resulted in the best season on record for the state and skiers and riders flocked from all over the country to experience Vermont at its finest. This season is predicted to be another snowy and cold winter, blessing Vermont with plenty of natural powder, but that doesn’t stop the country’s top resorts from improving the Vermont experience even more.

by Sarah Olsen vtdigger.org The bargaining team of the part-time faculty unit reached a tentative agreement with the University of Vermont Thursday. Since February, the bargaining team of United Academics has been working with UVM to agree on the terms of its next collective bargaining agreement. Both parties agreed to enter mediation in May in a continuing effort to produce an agreement. This tentative agreement will soon be submitted to the members of the Part-Time Bargaining Unit for a ratification vote.

Under the new contract, the salary pool will be adjusted as follows: A 3.25 percent increase in fiscal year 2016; a 3 percent increase in 2017; and a 2.5 percent increase in 2018, totaling 8.75 percent over three years.

by the Lake Champlain Committee (LCC) This week's heat wave brought with it numerous reports of blue-green algae blooms. St Albans Bay and Missisquoi Bay were hit the hardest but blooms also showed up in the northern part of the Main Lake, the Alburgh Passage, and on Lake Carmi. With few exceptions, waters generally remained clear from the Islands south. Thursday's (8/20) high winds may have moved scums around and changed conditions but cyanobacteria will be present for some weeks yet. Anyone on the water and shorelines, particularly in Missisquoi Bay and St Albans Bay should be on the lookout and avoid contact with blooms. Algae conditions can vary widely over short time frames and short distances. Some blooms persist for days while others pop up and disappear within a span of hours. Blooms are pushed by prevailing winds, leading to denser shoreline accumulations downwind.

Vermont Business Magazine A University of Vermont-led research team has received approval for $18.5 million in funding to study whether patients with both medical and behavioral problems do better when their primary care physicians work in combination with behavioral health professionals including psychologists and social workers.

Benjamin Littenberg, MD, professor of medicine and Henry and Carleen Tufo chair in general internal medicine, gathered colleagues at UVM and across the country for a five-year research project, titled "Integrating Behavioral Health and Primary Care." The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) selected Littenberg's project as one of four out of 124 original applications to receive funding. Based in Washington DC, the organization seeks to answer questions that patients and their clinicians face daily and find approaches to health care that work best for the end user.