by Erin Mansfield VTDigger.org The state’s health care regulatory board decided Wednesday to increase the upcoming year’s budget for the Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital. The Green Mountain Care Board decided in a 4-1 vote to reinstate some of the St. Johnsbury hospital’s proposed 2016 fiscal year budget. The vote comes one month after it approved $2.3 billionin budgets among Vermont’s 14 nonprofit hospitals.
The majority of the hospital money approved for disbursement in September went to the UVM Medical Center and Central Vermont Medical Center, but four hospitals had their proposed budgets decreased by the board. The Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital’s total approved was $67.7 million, about $784,000 less than the hospital had requested.
Members of the Green Mountain Care Board (from left): Betty Rambur, Allan Ramsay, Al Gobeille, Karen Hein and Con Hogan. Photo by Morgan True/VTDigger
In percentage terms, the Green Mountain Care Board had asked that Vermont’s 14 private hospitals submit budgets with an aggregate 3.6 percent increase. The board ended up cutting four budgets until the increase was 3.5 percent across all hospitals. Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital asked for a 5.2-percent increase and received a 3.2-percent increase.
A week after the board’s decision, representatives for the Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital sent a letter to the Green Mountain Care Board asking for more money.
The hospital’s chief financial officer, Bob Hersey, wrote Sept. 18 that the hospital needed its full requested budget to fund an orthopedic surgeon, a part-time urologist, a primary care physician and an expansion of its pain management program.
“The ability of an adequate number of primary care and specialists is closely linked to our mission, which is to improve the health of our community,” Hersey wrote. “Adequate access to appropriate primary and speciality services also improves the patient’s experience, lowers their cost of health care services and helps them better manage their health status.”
Hersey wrote that, before the September decision, the Green Mountain Care Board didn’t believe the hospital would get as much revenue from patients if it didn’t hire additional emergency room doctors by Oct. 1. However, he said the additional budget it requested this year had nothing to do with the emergency department, but was part of a multi-year, strategic plan to help the hospital better serve the community.
“We would argue that all of the (additional budgeted money) that NVRH will realize (in fiscal year 2016) by adding providers to meet community need would otherwise migrate to (New Hampshire) facilities,” the letter said. “We strongly believe that where practicable, Vermont health care dollars should stay in Vermont, which preserves jobs here and bolsters the economy.”
Hersey said on Wednesday that fulfilling Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital’s full budget meant the hospital might come in under budget next year.
In a Wednesday afternoon vote at a special meeting, the board decided 4-1 toreinstate the hospital’s budget increase from the approved 3.2 percent rate to the hospital’s proposed 5.2 percent rate. Betty Rambur, a board member and nurse practitioner, was the only dissenting vote.
“This is a great example of why a multiyear process is a good idea going forward,” said Jessica Holmes, an economist who sits on the Green Mountain Care Board.
Con Hogan, another board member, said, “I hope we don’t wake up next year with four or six hospitals requesting the same thing.”
Northwestern Vermont Medical Center in St. Albans, whose proposed fiscal year 2016 budget was cut from $96.1 million to $94.6 million in September, will make a presentation to the board Thursday to ask for more money.