Sunny Eappen, president and CEO of the University of Vermont Health Network, speaks at an event in South Burlington on December 15, 2022. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
Last month, the University of Vermont Health Network announced a slate of wide-ranging cuts to its Vermont facilities.
Those cuts — which drew a swift and furious outcry — included closing an inpatient psychiatric unit at Central Vermont Medical Center, ending kidney transplants at the University of Vermont Medical Center, and shuttering a primary care clinic in Waitsfield.
Across Lake Champlain, however, the situation looks very different. Over the past few years, UVM Health Network’s facilities in northern New York have added capacity and increased the volume of certain procedures.
Over the past two years, Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital, in Plattsburgh, has worked to increase the number of surgeries it performs, according to Annie Mackin, a network spokesperson. During that time, Elizabethtown Community Hospital’s Ticonderoga campus has expanded clinics in women’s health and dermatology. Late in 2023, a primary care clinic operated by another health care organization opened at Alice Hyde Medical Center, in Malone. And earlier this year, Alice Hyde hired a general surgeon, the network announced in October.
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The network hopes to add even more capacity in the state in the coming years, leaders say.
“In New York, we’re doing our very best to expand services, to grow opportunities, to be able to have more opportunities to see patients over there,” Steven Leffler, president and chief operating officer of UVM Medical Center, said in an interview last month.
“We’re hoping they’ll have more inpatient access to cover patients who can’t stay here,” Leffler said, referring to the Burlington hospital. “We’re hoping we can move more surgical cases there as a way to make sure that access is maintained for people who may have, unfortunately, more (of a) challenge getting access here.”
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byPeter D’Auria
‘Patient-centered and patient-focused’
Leaders of the six-hospital network said the additions in New York are simply part of ongoing efforts to help patients access more care more easily — similar to what the network seeks to do in Vermont.
The University of Vermont Medical Center, Central Vermont Medical Center and Porter Medical Center, in Middlebury, are all part of the UVM Health Network.
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The recent cuts on this side of the lake, administrators say, were due solely to the actions of the Green Mountain Care Board, a state regulator that capped network hospital budgets and ordered UVM Medical Center to reduce its charges to private health insurers earlier this year.
Additions at New York hospitals, which are not under the board’s jurisdiction, have nothing to do with the board’s orders and often predate them, network leaders said.
That work “is totally independent and unrelated to regulatory action here,” Sunny Eappen, the president and CEO of UVM Health Network, said in an interview.
Expanding services in New York, however, does benefit Vermont’s hospitals. In the 2023 fiscal year, New York residents contributed roughly 14% of the University of Vermont Medical Center’s patient revenue, to the tune of $245 million, according to financial documents submitted to the Green Mountain Care Board.
In Vermont, the care board places limits on how much hospitals can bring in from patient care — limits that UVM Health Network officials have said are onerous and harmful. By adding capacity in New York, the network can keep some of those patients in their communities and out of Vermont hospitals.
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Owen Foster, the chair of the Green Mountain Care Board, declined to comment, saying he did not know the details of the network’s New York hospital services.
In 2025, Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital plans to add operating room capacity for general surgery, urology, ear nose and throat procedures and orthopedics, according to Mackin, the network spokesperson. The network has invested in some “anesthesiology resources” for that expansion and is recruiting urology and orthopedics clinicians, she said.
The network has also informed about 370 New York patients that they have the option of getting imaging procedures — such as x-rays — in-state, rather than in Vermont, Mackin said. UVM Health Network is also “evaluating opportunities” to add gastroenterology, cardiology and infusion procedures in New York, she said.
“It’s patient-focused and patient-centered, right?” Lisa Mark, the chief medical officer of Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital and Alice Hyde Medical Center, said in an interview. “So they don’t have to travel across the lake if they don’t need to.”
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” data-medium-file=”https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/owen-foster-4-20231130-300×200.jpg” data-large-file=”https://i0.wp.com/vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/owen-foster-4-20231130-1200×799.jpg?ssl=1″ fifu-data-src=”https://i0.wp.com/vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/owen-foster-4-20231130-1200×799.jpg?ssl=1″ alt=”A man in a suit and tie is speaking in front of a screen.” class=”wp-image-564713″ srcset=”https://i0.wp.com/vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/owen-foster-4-20231130-1200×799.jpg?ssl=1 1200w, https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/owen-foster-4-20231130-300×200.jpg 300w, https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/owen-foster-4-20231130-125×83.jpg 125w, https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/owen-foster-4-20231130-768×511.jpg 768w, https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/owen-foster-4-20231130-1536×1022.jpg 1536w, https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/owen-foster-4-20231130-1024×681.jpg 1024w, https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/owen-foster-4-20231130-1568×1044.jpg 1568w, https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/owen-foster-4-20231130-400×266.jpg 400w, https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/owen-foster-4-20231130.jpg 2000w” sizes=”(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px”>Owen Foster, chair of the Green Mountain Care Board, testifies before the Health Reform Oversight Committee at the Statehouse in Montpelier on November 30, 2023. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
Vermont and New York
Over the past few months, UVM Health Network has drawn scrutiny for the movement of money between its Vermont and New York hospitals.
That attention was sparked by the revelation, during the Green Mountain Care Board’s annual hospital budget review process, that Burlington’s UVM Medical Center was owed $60 million by Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh.
That has led to fears that Vermonters are subsidizing New York medical facilities. In comments submitted to the Green Mountain Care Board in August, Vermont’s chief health care advocate Mike Fisher and his staff members charged that the network “has consistently weakened its financial position by choosing to transfer monies to the New York hospitals.”
Network leaders have repeatedly denied that those transfers — which have paid for pharmaceuticals, physicians’ salaries and other expenses — had any impact on Vermonters. Those transfers affect a hospital’s cash on hand, leaders said, but do not affect margins or Vermonters’ commercial insurance rates.
“We’ve been very, very clear on that,” Rick Vincent, the network’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, said in an interview. “The Vermont commercial rates are not impacted by those New York hospitals.”
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Last month, the care board asked the network for more information about the New York hospitals’ finances, including their operating margins and cash on hand.
UVM Health Network initially declined to provide that information. But Eappen said in an interview he does intend to share the hospitals’ financial information with the board.
According to publicly available nonprofit tax forms, some of the network’s New York hospitals have struggled in the past years. Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital lost nearly $30 million in its 2022 fiscal year and nearly $40 million in the 2023 fiscal year, according to tax records, and Alice Hyde Medical Center lost about $20 million in those two years, as well. Elizabethtown Community Hospital, meanwhile, has reported positive margins for the past decade.
Eappen said that Champlain Valley and Alice Hyde have grown more stable in the past year, although financial data is not yet publicly available.
There are “not yet” plans to shift more services to New York as a result of the Green Mountain Care Board’s orders, Eappen said. But keeping care close to home for residents of northern New York is a win-win, he said.
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“If New Yorkers stay in New York, it doesn’t contribute to that Vermont revenue piece,” Eappen said, referring to patient revenue, which is capped by the Green Mountain Care Board. “And so if we do it well and keep New Yorkers in New York, it’s a positive on both ends.”
A plan by Gov. Phil Scott’s administration to make all of the state’s lottery games, including scratch-off tickets, available on a person’s phone never got off the ground at the Statehouse this year.
Lottery Commissioner Wendy Knight told lawmakers in January that the plan was a way to modernize the lottery “because you need to keep pace with technology — you need to meet your players where they are.”
Fifteen states have created a “digital” lottery system, and many have discovered there’s a distinct market of people who don’t buy lottery tickets at retail outlets but will do so on their phones, according to Knight. “We’re trying to ensure the future of the Vermont Lottery, ” the commissioner said.
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But state lawmakers have not been persuaded.
Vergennes Rep. Matt Birong, the Democratic chair of the House government operations committee, said members of the panel felt this year was not the time to move forward with this plan, especially given the recent legalization of sports betting.
“It is digitizing a current system and after moving forward with the sports wagering — people just wanted to take their time with it — so my committee decided to tap the brakes on further testimony.”
The administration estimated that the plan would have raised roughly $5 million a year for the state’s education fund after two years of implementation.
The prospect of that additional revenue is appealing to lawmakers, and Birong said they may reconsider the plan next year.
Records: UAlbany (10-5, 5-1 America East) | Vermont (8-6, 4-1 America East)
Short Story: UAlbany women’s lacrosse fell to the Vermont Catamounts on Saturday afternoon.
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Key Stats
Grace Cincebox recorded a total of 14 saves with 13 goals allowed for a .565 save percentage.
Ravan Marsell led the Great Danes with two points on one goal and one assist.
Four different UAlbany players scored in the contest.
Reggie Williams was the team’s leader with three ground balls.
Delilah Mile caused a team high three turnovers.
How It Happened
The Catamounts came out of the gates hard and heavy, scoring all three goals between both sides in the first quarter.
Vermont would take an 8-0 lead in the second quarter before Amanda Williamson found the back of the net on a women-down goal to put the Great Danes on the board and make it 8-1.
The Great Danes would allow one more goal in the first half to trail 9-1 after 30-minutes of play.
Grace Cincebox would enter the half with 10 saves.
Riley Forthofer started the Great Danes off in the second half to make it a 9-2 game, before Vermont put up three more goals to take a 12-2 lead entering the final quarter of play.
Mya Carroll and Ravan Marsell both scored on back-to-back free-position goals to make it a 12-4 game.
The Catamounts finished the game with two more goals to take the win 14-4.
Up Next
The Great Danes will next have a bye week and wait to see the outcome of next week’s Vermont vs UMass Lowell game to see who will host the America East Tournament.
Social Central: Stay up to date with UAlbany women’s lacrosse by following the team on Instagram (@UAlbanyWLax), Facebook (UAlbany Women’s Lacrosse), and X (@UAlbanyWLax) for all of the latest news and highlights throughout the year.
