Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Since last year, The University of Vermont Health Network has worked to reach a new agreement on behalf of patients who receive commercial insurance through UnitedHealthcare. Despite many attempts to preserve patient access to care, United, one of the nation’s largest for-profit insurers, has decided to allow that contract to expire as of April 1, 2023. UVM Health Network proposed a plan that would have allowed current patients to continue accessing care with their United coverage through the end of 2023, under financial terms that would have had a negative impact on the health system. This would have allowed patients time to seek new insurance and treatment plans. However, that request was denied by United, and their more than 2,600 commercial members in Vermont and northern New York will be out of network (with certain exceptions).

Vermont Business Magazine Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital (NVRH) will host a Heart Health Fair on Friday, February 24, 11 am to 3 pm. The Heart Health Fair is open to all staff and community members and will be held in the NVRH Business Center. Please wear a mask and enter through the Main Entrance at 1315 Hospital Drive. Taking care of your heart is important and doing so may help prevent a heart attack. According to the American Heart Association, approximately every 40 seconds, someone in the United States will have a heart attack.

Public Assets Institute Amid rising prices and expiring pandemic assistance for housing, food, and other basics, there’s some good news for Vermonters and their kids. Families most in need—those with low or no earnings—with children under 6 can now receive $1,000 from the refundable Vermont Child Tax Credit when they file their 2022 tax returns. But here’s the challenge: Many families with low earnings don’t have to file taxes—so they risk missing out on these credits. In 2019 the IRS estimated that 17 percent of Vermont filers did not claim the Earned Income Tax Credit, a similar refundable tax credit targeting families with low income, even though they were eligible.

Vermont Business Magazine A new and much-needed resource for eating disorder patients is opening in Burlington on Wednesday, February 22nd. The Kahm Center for Eating Disorders offers Intensive Outpatient and Partial Hospitalization services for eating disorders. This level of care is for those individuals for whom one-on-one outpatient care is not sufficient, but residential care may not be necessary. Group sizes are small, the staff is highly experienced and well-trained, and each patient has an individualized treatment plan. Intensive outpatient care consists of individual therapy, group therapy, meal support, and nutritional counseling that lasts for three hours per day, five days a week. Partial hospitalization includes the same but with increased psychiatric care that lasts for five hours per day, five days a week.

Vermont Business Magazine The State of Vermont and the Vermont Captive Insurance Association (VCIA) will send a delegation of government, regulatory, and industry representatives to Mexico to highlight Vermont’s leading captive insurance industry. The trade mission was originally planned for March 2020, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The delegation will lead a captive insurance educational forum in Mexico City on March 1, 2023. The trade mission is a collaborative effort with the U.S. Commercial Service, the trade and promotion arm of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration, and Vermont’s Department of Economic Development via its State Trade and Expansion Program, a program funded by the Small Business Administration.

Vermont Business Magazine Rutland Regional Medical Center’s Women’s & Children’s Unit (WACU) has recently installed a new and innovative Infant Safety System developed by CertaScan Technologies (www.certascantek.com). Rutland Regional is the first hospital in the state of Vermont to have installed this new safety system and provide this innovative service to moms and the community it serves. The proprietary system allows the hospital to capture high resolution digital images of a newborn’s footprint which can be used for precise identification in situations like an abduction, lost baby or natural disaster.

by Devon Green, VP of Government Relations, Vermont Association of Hospitals & Health Systems Despite weather warm enough to keep the Capitol doors open earlier last week, the return to cold weather reminded us that the session is far from over. We’re hunkering down as bills pass out of committees and the House starts working on the FY 2024 budget in earnest. Mental Health: Senate Appropriations removed $9.25 million dedicated to an adolescent inpatient psychiatric unit out of the FY 2023 Budget Adjustment Act (BAA). The proposal will be discussed for the FY 2024 budget after feasibility study results are released. The full Senate will likely pass the BAA out early next week.

Vermont Business Magazine The Northwest Vermont REALTOR® Association (NVRA) is hosting its annual food drive collecting money and tangible donations for Feeding Chittenden, Champlain Islands Food Shelf, and the Enosburg Food Shelf. The NVRA Food Drive will be accepting financial contributions through PayPal and food item donations of non-perishables from February 14 through March 31.

Vermont Business Magazine Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital (NVRH) held orientation for its newest Corporators on Thursday, February 16, 2023. Because Corporators are key links between members of the community and the hospital, they are an invaluable source of wisdom and perspective for hospital leadership.

Vermont Agency of Agriculture Food & Markets NOFA-VT has grant funds for projects that will improve long-term resilience on farms. NOFA-VT's definition of "resilience" is framed broadly around their mission: to promote organic practices to build an economically viable, ecologically sound, and socially just Vermont agricultural system that benefits all living things. Applications are reviewed anonymously by a committee of Vermont farmers and farmworkers. The maximum grant amount is $2,500. For 2023, NOFA-VT is accepting multi-farm applications.

by Wendy Wilton It turns out the real long-term cost of The Affordable Heat Act, S.5, proposed by the Natural Resources and Energy Committee, is $5 billion over a 5-year period as demonstrated in a detailed financial analysis by the Ethan Allen Institute. Most of that cost will be on the backs of low- and moderate-income Vermonters who will pay for it through increased fuel costs in the range of $5 per gallon. Worse, hoped-for long-term energy savings will not occur. The Ethan Allen Institute analysis supersedes the administration’s previous estimate of $1.2 billion overall cost and a fuel increase of $0.70 to $1.00 per gallon to pay for it.