Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Central Vermont Home Health & Hospice (CVHHH) received a $10,000 grant from the Vermont Mutual Charitable Giving Fund. The grant will help fund CVHHH’s Adult Home Care program, which provides intermittent, short-term medical care, education, and support to Central Vermonters recovering from a hospital stay, injury, or surgery, and those who need assistance managing their chronic disease. CVHHH’s Home Care program is the organization’s largest in terms of the number of patients admitted and visits provided annually. CVHHH will use the funding to purchase equipment, support clinician education, and expand programming so it can continue to respond to the evolving healthcare needs of central Vermonters at home. It will also use the funding to purchase specialized devices called dopplers that home health nurses use to take blood pressure for advanced heart failure patients with Left Ventricular Assist Devices, or LVADs, which are inserted surgically. 

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health reported last week that the number of COVID-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations were fairly stable after a spiking to their highest levels since early November. There was 1 fatality since the previous week's report, which also reported only 1. Hospitalizations held at just over 10 after being at their highest levels since October. Outbreaks increased slightly. Hospitalizations and general "syndromic" cases were at 10+ statewide for the week. The number of reported COVID cases increased to 181 from 163; they were at 67 in early December. Cases had fallen in April and May and were as low as 31 at the beginning of May 2024, before rising at the end of summer through the early part of the fall. Wastewater monitoring spiked the last few weeks but like the other indices, fell back somewhat but remain relatively high, especially in Montpelier. 

Vermont Business Magazine Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) today released the following statement after the Trump Administration ordered a pause in all federal grants and loans, a sweeping decision that could disrupt education and health care programs, housing assistance, disaster relief and a host of other initiatives that depend on billions of federal dollars: Let’s be clear. The Trump Administration’s action last night to suspend all federal grants and loans will have a devastating impact on the health and well-being of millions of children, seniors on fixed incomes, and the most vulnerable people in our country. It is a dangerous move towards authoritarianism and it is blatantly unconstitutional. Our Founding Fathers explicitly gave Congress the power of the purse. Under our system of checks and balances, no president has the right to choose which laws to follow and which laws to ignore.

Vermont Business Magazine Executive Director Molly Gray of Vermont Afghan Alliance released the following statement in response to the January 27 White House memorandum pausing all federal grants, loans and other financial assistance programs: “Overnight, the Trump Administration shut down Alliance programs for Afghans in Vermont by blocking access to the federal Payment Management System and thereby preventing the Alliance from accessing obligated federal funds. In 2023, the Alliance was one of 15 organizations nationally awarded a 3-year Ethnic Community Self Help grant that supports refugees in adjusting to life in America and integrating into Vermont communities."

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine Today, the Vermont Department of Labor released data on the Vermont economy for the time period covering December 2024. According to household data, the seasonally adjusted statewide unemployment rate for December was 2.4 percent. This reflects no change from the prior month’s revised estimate. Vermont has the second lowest rate in the nation behind South Dakota (1.9%). Nevada again has the highest rate (5.7%). The comparable United States rate in December was 4.1 percent, a decrease of one-tenth of one percentage point from the revised November estimate. The Labor Force and number Employed both fell, while number of unemployed increased. All three data points were not considered "significant." 

by Devon Green, VP of Government Relations, Vermont Association of Hospitals & Health Systems As Vermont emerges from negative temperatures, things are heating up at the State House. This includes the unmerging Health Insurance Markets: The House Health Care Committee unanimously supported H. 35, which will continue to keep the small group and individual health insurance markets separate, as authorized in 2022, which takes advantage of the ACA premium subsidies and maintains lower prices for small group premiums.

Vermont Business Magazine Community Care Network (CCN) has announced its 2024 service results in conjunction with the release of its 2024 Impact Report. Among Community Care Network’s 2024 service results and areas of advancement are: 96,988 hours of direct service provided to 3,714 clients across the functional service areas of Developmental Services, Adult Mental Health Services, Child and Family Services, Mental Health Crisis Services and Substance Use Treatment and Recovery Services; On average across all CCN-RMHS programs, 89% of client survey respondents reported that staff treated them with respect, 76% reported that they received the services they needed and 75% reported that the services they received made a difference.

by Tom Raffio, President & CEO, Northeast Delta Dental As Vermonters grapple with the lack of access to dental care, especially in rural areas, it is clear that we must focus on more creative solutions to address the problem.  This is when collaboration matters most. A creative solution is often founded on a single, simple but brilliant idea but its execution can rarely, if ever, occur without the partnership and support of many. According to a study in the international science journal Thinking Skills and Creativity, collaboration has a significant positive effect on creative performance. (For more, see Thinking Skills and Creativity, Volume 50, December 2023.) Recently, after reading about the dental crisis in Vermont, Dr. Mert N. Aksu, Dean at The University of Detroit Mercy (UDM) School of Dentistry, imagined a win-win scenario. What if he could address the overabundance of talented applicants at his university by filling the pipeline of potential dental professionals in Vermont?

Vermont Business Magazine Four members of the communities served by the University of Vermont Health Network will become members of its Board of Trustees, adding clinicians, clinical educators and researchers, a seasoned health care leader and a veteran administrator of legal and social services in northern New York to the health system’s 21-member volunteer board. As the group welcomes new members, Trustee Thomas Golonka will begin a two-year term as board chair, with Betsy Vicencio serving a two-year term as vice chair and Kara Walker, MD, MPH, MSHS continuing as secretary. Trustees Virginia Hood, MD, Debra Leonard, MD, PhD, John Rugge, MD, and Kerin Stackpole, Esq., retired from the board at the conclusion of the 2024 calendar year. Former board chair Allie Stickney stepped down from the board leadership position after serving as chair for three years. She continues to serve as a trustee.

Vermont Business Magazine NBT Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ: NBTB) today reported net income and diluted earnings per share for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2024. Net income for the three months ended December 31, 2024 was $36.0 million, or $0.76 per diluted common share, compared to $30.4 million, or $0.64 per diluted common share, for the three months ended December 31, 2023, and $38.1 million, or $0.80 per diluted common share, for the third quarter of 2024. Operating diluted earnings per share(1), a non-GAAP measure was $0.77 for the fourth quarter of 2024, compared to $0.72 for the fourth quarter of 2023 and $0.80 for the third quarter of 2024. Net income for the year ended December 31, 2024 was $140.6 million, or $2.97 per diluted common share, compared to $118.8 million, or $2.65 per diluted common share, in the prior year.

Vermont Business Magazine Burlington-based Mamava, makers of the first-ever lactation pod, appointed co-founder Christine Dodson its next Chief Executive Officer. In February, Dodson will replace Tom Witschi, who is retiring from his role as CEO and his professional career. This is a natural progression for Dodson, who launched Mamava alongside Chief Experience Officer Sascha Mayer in 2013. The pair identified a lack of lactation spaces in workplaces and public spaces, creating a stand-alone pod as a clean, private space to breastfeed or pump. The first lactation pod was installed in the Burlington International Airport in 2013 and since then the company has gone on to deliver more than 5,000 pods throughout the country in office buildings, stadiums, medical facilities, convention centers, aquariums and more.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing (VDTM) is announcing the results of a new study by Tourism Economics that finds visitors to Vermont in 2023 spent a record $4 billion on goods and services. Researchers also found that 15.8 million guests came to Vermont in 2023, showing a sustained return to pre-pandemic visitation. According to the report, “Economic Impact of Visitors in Vermont 2023,” visitor spending represents 9.3% of Vermont’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is significantly higher than the national state average of 3.0% (2022 data). It also found the visitor economy supports 31,053 jobs, which is 9% of Vermont’s workforce.