Current News

by Morgan True vtdigger.org Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont has been named in a class action suit alleging the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and its regional affiliates violate federal antitrust law. The suit accuses the association and its affiliates of price-fixing, anticompetitive market allocation and a “boycott conspiracy” that ensures “every other Blue gets the benefit of the artificially reduced prices that each Blue pays to healthcare providers.” The individual Blue Cross affiliates, such as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont, are often referred to as “Blues.”

The plaintiffs in the suit are health care providers, medical device and equipment makers and people insured by the Blues. VTDigger was not immediately able to confirm if any of the plaintiffs are from Vermont.

Lamoille Home Health & Hospice has received a donation in the amount of $5,000 from Stowe Rotary President Iain Davies. Executive Director Kathy Demars along with Board Chair, Neal Fisher, and Clinical Director, Jennifer Beebe accepted the check on behalf of the Agency. Stowe Rotary had chosen LHH&H the beneficiary of their Friday night Rocktoberfest event at this year’s Oktoberfest. According to Davies, “Stowe Rotary knows the value of the services provided throughout Lamoille County by Lamoille Home Health & Hospice. We were very happy to work with them and thrilled to be able to provide this donation to such a deserving and hardworking local nonprofit organization.”

The Vermont Retail & Grocers Association (VRGA), in partnership with Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR) and the Vermont Small Business Administration (VT SBA), held a press conference today at Outdoor Gear Exchange in Burlington to kick off a “Shop Vermont This Holiday Season!” statewide awareness campaign. VRGA President Jim Harrison, VBSR Executive Director Andrea Cohen, and VT SBA District Director Darcy Carter worked with Representative Peter Welch’s office to organize and present the event.

In attendance for the kickoff were Representative Peter Welch, Governor Peter Shumlin, and Mayor Miro Weinberger. Participating Vermont merchants included Outdoor Gear Exchange, Lake Champlain Chocolates, Phoenix Bookstore, Danforth Pewter, and others.

Vermont EPSCoR RACC has concluded its surveys assessing Vermont household’s willingness to pay to improve the health of Lake Champlain. The first survey was distributed in 2012 to over 5,000 households in Vermont. The second was conducted in 2013, as part of the longstanding “Vermonter Poll” which the University of Vermont’s Center for Rural Studies performs annually, contacting over 2,000 households. Together, results indicated that 65 percent of respondents would be willing to pay at least $40 per year to help improve the health of Lake Champlain. This first of its kind overarching study targeted 2 key questions for policy makers and local and state leaders: Would you be willing to pay to help improve the health of Lake Champlain. Secondly, is your proximity to the Lake a factor in this decision?

National Life Group donated $6,000 to Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf, enough to buy 500 turkeys, as the agency struggles to meet demand during this Thanksgiving season. Late last week the Food Shelf reported that supplies were “critically low” and it was only one-third of the way toward its goal to provide 3,000 turkeys to food insecure families.

“We saw this in the news and knew we had to help,” said Mehran Assadi, National Life Group president and CEO. “We challenge other companies to do their part and donate to the food shelf and other hunger relief agencies.”

National Life Group regularly supports food programs, among other nonprofit agencies, through its charitable foundation and through corporate sponsorships.

Vermont State Auditor Doug Hoffer today released the findings of an audit into the Vermont Department of Liquor Control’s (DLC) purchasing, warehousing, distribution, and sales of liquor. Turns out, this likely will not be a financial windfall for the state. The audit first examined the financial impacts of privatizing or partially privatizing the sale of liquor in Vermont. The SAO’s financial modeling suggests that full or partial privatization of liquor sales may yield a neutral budget impact, but there are other considerations. Second, the State Auditor’s Office (SAO) investigated ways to increase the profitability of the current system and the audit team identified areas where the DLC may be able to improve fiscal performance.

Vermont is one of 17 states that control the sale of liquor at the wholesale and/or retail levels, and the DLC sells alcohol through 78 privately-owned retail businesses that contract with the department.

Public Assets Institute The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate held steady at 4.4 percent in October. Vermont has the second-lowest rate in New England (New Hampshire 4.2 percent), but lags when it comes to increasing employment. So far this year, the southern New England states have seen at least 3 percent growth in the number of people employed. In Vermont, that number is up less than 0.05 percent, and employment has shrunk in Maine.

Vermont Business Magazine New weekly unemployment claims in Vermont were down slightly last week. Claims had been very low during the summer, but increased in early October. After five weeks of increases, claims are down for the last two. Levels this year had been running consistently lower than those of last year, but are now nearly the same. For the week of November 15, 2014, there were 792 new, regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance in Vermont. This is a decrease of 41 from the previous week's total, and 3 more than they were a year ago.

by Amanda Kuhnert Over the past two decades, Manufacturing Solutions, Inc. in Morrisville, Vermont has grown from a niche manufacturing business into a multifaceted company with 250,000 square feet of commercial building space and 180 employees. Company owner and CEO Garret Hirchak and his wife Beth Salvas have stood at the helm as revenues have steadily increased over the years — 135 percent since 2009, while other manufacturers across the country have laid off employees and shut their doors.

Although no two successful business stories are the same, companies like MSI provide clues about what it takes to grow and maintain a successful business. Here are 10 business practices that have worked for MSI, and can be applied to any growing company:

1. Build your business on opportunity

Spherion Staffing Services, a local recruiting, staffing and workforce solutions provider backed by the resources of a $2 billion global workforce leader, announced today that Ken Ballard, franchise owner of the South Burlington office, is celebrating a major milestone - 25 years of exceptional service to local employees and clients. A temporary employee himself, Ballard quickly ascended to a variety of recruiting and managerial positions including recruiter, client services manager, and branch manager, and eventually took over the South Burlington Spherion office in 1997. At that time, he was running his business with just three employees and a handful of clients. Today, he employs eight full-time workers, matches hundreds of workers per year with local jobs and serves as the go-to staffing resource for companies in a variety of industries.

Coming off of not only one, but two near record breaking seasons with over 4.5 million skier visits each, Vermont is once again paving the path to stellar ski and snowboard season. The state boasts twelve resorts open for skiing, riding and even Nordic skiing by November 22, 2014 and at least another opening prior to Thanksgiving. This time last season Vermont was bragging about a record breaking ten resorts opening the weekend before Thanksgiving, but that goal has been far surpassed already this season.

Thanks to a sustained period of ideal snowmaking conditions, Mount Snow Resort opened for its 60^th winter season on Friday, November 21st. Traditionally, the resort opens around the Thanksgiving holiday, but recent upgrades to its snowmaking system coupled with cold weather had the snow piling up, allowing for an earlier than normal start to the season. Skiers and snowboarders enjoyed top-to-bottom terrain for all ability levels on a dozen trails covering 117 acres of skiable terrain accessed by three chairlifts. Carinthia, the East’s only mountain face entirely dedicated to freestyle terrain, opened with a full terrain park in The Gulch with numerous features.