Current News

by Laura Krantz vtdigger.org About three years ago, staff at the Burlington Boys & Girls Club realized how bad the drug problem had become. Teens were afraid to walk home at night, afraid to cross the park, afraid of being assaulted by someone on drugs.
Staff heard from 13-year-olds asked to sell drugs, 15-year-old girls offered money from drug dealers for sex. They heard about guns and gang affiliations.
“These messages are coming from all different kinds of kids — rich, poor, middle class, from natives of Vermont, from places far away,” Boys & Girls Club Executive Director Mary Alice McKenzie told US Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, on Monday afternoon in Rutland.

Mary Alice McKenzie, executive director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Burlington and Col. Tom L’Esperance, director of the Vermont State Police, participate in a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on opiate addiction in Rutland. Photo by Laura Krantz/VTDigger

Skiers and riders rejoiced over major March snowstorm Vulcan last week, but they aren’t the only ones that benefit from snowfall and cold weather in Vermont’s green mountains. Even those that are dreaming of summer in Vermont reap the economic benefits of our official state sports, as they bring in major spenders from surrounding states and generate hundreds of millions of tax revenue dollars.
Vermont’s ski and snowboard industry draws over $700 million in statewide spending each winter season. Think that money just gets spent at the mountains? Think again. Two-thirds of that spending occurs off-mountain in surrounding villages and towns, supporting many local businesses with the ski economy running deep throughout our communities. Those significant winter traveler expenditures generate another $700 million in indirect spending, totaling nearly $1.5 billion in economic benefit for Vermont’s economy.

A landmark clinical trial that studies the effectiveness of the most common spine surgeries has received the ultimate honor in orthopaedics: the 2014 Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation’s (OREF) Clinical Research Award.
The award recipients were Dr. James N. Weinstein, principal investigator for the Spine Patient Outcomes Research Trial (SPORT), and the D-H physicians, researchers, patient coordinators, and analysts who have conducted the study. The award was announced March 12 at the 2014 annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in New Orleans.
“This is an incredible honor”, said Weinstein, who is CEO and President of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health system and a spine surgeon. “In selecting SPORT, the Foundation has recognized the great work of my colleagues here at D-H and the 12 other participating centers across the country, as well as the contributions of the thousands of patients who agreed to be part of the trial.”

Governor Peter Shumlin and most of the state’s mayors today called on Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to withdraw the FDA’s approval of Zohydro ER, a drug which the governor says is significantly stronger than traditional hydrocodone. “We remind you that our state, and many others, are currently battling an opiate and heroin addiction crisis, doing everything within our power to prevent and treat the dangerous disease of addiction, and strengthen laws to keep these deadly drugs – and the crimes they bring – out of our communities,” the group said in a letter to Commissioner Hamburg. Those joining the Governor on the letter are St. Albans Mayor Liz Gamache, Montpelier Mayor John Hollar, Barre Mayor Thomas Lauzon, Rutland Mayor Christopher Louras, Newport Mayor Paul Monette, Winooski Mayor Mike O’Brien, and Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger.

In a Viewpoint published in the March issue of JAMA, Researcher Jeremiah Brown of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice and colleagues, Hal Sox and David Goodman, question whether the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ use of financial penalties is the right tack for changing the behavior of hospitals.
The researchers examine the pros and cons of the hospital readmissions reduction policy in the Affordable Care Act as an example of similar CMS initiatives.
“Using financial incentives to change practice is a tried-and-true CMS strategy,” the researchers said. And the penalties worked – more than half of U.S. hospitals reduced their early readmission penalty in less than a year.

Federal regulations for reporting toxic chemicals in consumer products have not changed in decades, but Vermont is poised to join other states to label – and possibly ban – products containing chemicals considered harmful to public health.
Vermont has passed legislation to regulate the use of certain chemicals one at a time, including flame retardants, Bisphenol A (BPA), mercury and lead. But a new proposal would allow the Vermont Department of Health to expand this list every other year without legislative approval.
The bill, S.239, asks the department to create a list of potentially harmful chemicals and require manufacturers to label or remove toxic chemicals from their products – a proposal that has alarmed businesses across the country.

In an analysis by the Public Assets Institute released Monday, Vermont didn’t create as many new jobs in 2013 as reported earlier, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Each February, the BLS revises its data, which are based on statistical surveys. The new numbers show Vermont ended 2013 with 306,300 non-farm payroll jobs. That was nearly 3,000 fewer than originally reported and just 200 more than Vermont had at the end of 2012.
A Growing Workforce
While job growth was essentially flat last year, 2014 got off to a better start, at least as indicated by preliminary figures. According to the BLS, Vermont employers added 3,000 jobs in January, half in the private sector and half in the public sector. Meanwhile, Vermont’s unemployment rate dropped to 4 percent, down from 4.2 percent the previous month. The labor force—people working or looking for work—grew for the first time since late 2011.
Fewer Unemployed

by Morgan True vtdigger.org
Several Vermont Legal Aid projects that rely on state dollars could have to scale back operations if the Legislature doesn’t find money to cover their growing costs, the organization’s director says.
Eric Avildsen, Legal Aid’s executive director, has spent time at the Statehouse recently lobbying for additional money. Those efforts are touch-and-go, he said Monday.
The alternative, he said, is downsizing or shifting resources away from other projects.

by John McClaughry Returning from a meeting with President Obama in Connecticut a week ago, Governor Peter Shumlin made a not-so-startling announcement: “I feel very strongly that it’s imperative to raise the minimum wage in Vermont to what the President has recommended.” He went on to suggest that a higher government-mandated wage would “give a boost to the state’s economy.”
The President’s proposal that won Shumlin’s enthusiastic support would raise the Federal minimum wage from the present $7.25 per hour to $10.10 in 2017. Two bills in the legislature (S301 and H550) propose to increase the Vermont minimum wage (now $8.73) in stages to $13.20 in 2017, when, if Obama is successful, the Federal minimum wage will have risen to $10.10. Thus, the Vermont minimum wage would go from 120 percent of the Federal wage to 131 percent.

Related Company: Copley Hospital, IncCopley Hospital is one of New England’s top 50 hospitals based on patient satisfaction according to a recent report published by GoLocalProv. Copley was rated #33 of New England’s Best Hospitals, recognized for its “stellar communication.”
For their first annual ranking of New England Hospitals Rated by Patients, GoLocal analyzed results from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, also known as HCAHPS Survey. The report was based on more than 50,000 patient surveys in 176 hospitals in New England. Highlights of Copley’s report include 87% of patients who said their doctors communicated well, and 85% of patients who said their nurses did.

Related Company: Renewable NRG Systems Inc.Renewable NRG Systems, a designer and manufacturer of decision support tools for the global renewable energy industry, has been recognized with a Worksite Wellness Silver Level Award by the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness & Sports and the Vermont Department of Health. This award acknowledges the company’s fitness facilities and initiatives that encourage employee health and wellbeing.
“Worksites that promote healthy eating, physical activity, tobacco use cessation, and breastfeeding contribute to the overall health and wellness of all Vermonters, and they are one of the key reasons we are routinely rated the nation’s healthiest state,” said Health Commissioner Harry Chen, MD.

Related Company: Choice StrategiesChoice Strategies, a division of WageWorks, Inc. (NYSE: WAGE), a leader in administering Consumer-Directed Benefits, will be honored by the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness & Sports and the Vermont Department of Health with the Worksite Wellness Silver-Level Award in recognition of Choice Strategies’ commitment to workplace wellness and employee wellbeing. The award will be presented on March 27, 2014 at the Sheraton Hotel & Conference Center in South Burlington, VT.