Vermont

Nursing home bailouts: Why Vermont has given millions to keep care centers afloat – The Boston Globe

Published

4 months ago

January 6, 2026

Nursing home bailouts: Why Vermont has given millions to keep care centers afloat – The Boston Globe

For their part, state health officials say Vermont’s nursing homes are a vital piece of the eldercare landscape. Without extraordinary financial relief, they say, the state would have lost even more critical bedspace.

Efforts to address the upstream causes of the nursing homes’ financial crises, like the state’s reliance on traveling nurses, have received far less financial support.

Around half of the extraordinary financial requests from 2020 onward mention concerns with increased costs of staffing, particularly contract staffing. Staff and contract staff make up about 50 percent of total costs in nursing homes’ budgets, according to the state.

Vermont’s nursing homes depend on traveling staff more than those in any other state, according to federal data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

There are many reasons extraordinary financial relief is not a sustainable means to “plug the gap” for nursing homes, “but we needed something,” said Helen Labun, the Vermont Health Care Association’s executive director.

“We don’t want EFR to be a standard option,” Labun said. “It really is meant to be an extraordinary measure.”

An old program meets an urgent need

Despite existing for more than 20 years, Vermont’s extraordinary financial relief program started playing a recurring and sustaining role for the state’s nursing homes only since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bureaucratic program routes through multiple departments nested within Vermont’s Agency of Human Services.

The Department of Vermont Health Access’ rate-setting division, which sets Medicaid reimbursement rates for nursing homes, reviews requests submitted by facilities. But the funds for extraordinary financial relief come from Medicaid dollars allocated through the Vermont Department of Disability, Aging, and Independent Living, according to the department’s commissioner, Jill Bowen.

Nursing homes, which receive extraordinary financial relief, provide the most intense level of care, serving people who wouldn’t have their needs met in an assisted living or residential care home, according to Labun. These facilities must serve patients on Medicaid to qualify for financial relief, she said.

There are 33 nursing homes in the state, with a total of about 2,847 beds as of July, a decline of nearly 900 beds in the last 20 years, according to the DAIL.

Bowen said the loss of beds in long-term care facilities is worrying given Vermont’s aging demographic, though she said the trend may partially stem from people seeking at-home care instead.

Angela Smith-Dieng, director of DAIL’s Adult Services Division, said the state does not want to lose options for its large elderly population, so extraordinary financial relief is “incredibly important as a tool to prevent nursing home closures.”

One factor leading to increased emergency funding requests, according to state leaders, is the “rebasing” of Medicaid reimbursements. Rebasing, which most recently occurred in 2025 and 2023, according to state leaders, changes Medicaid reimbursement rates based on cost data from earlier years. In 2023, the state altered reimbursement rates based on 2020 costs, which didn’t yet capture the new financial pressures brought on by the pandemic.

In July, the state again balanced reimbursement rates, this time using 2023 costs, which Bowen hopes will limit the need for extraordinary financial relief.

Working with the Legislature, the DAIL advocated for changing how much facilities are paid based on their occupancy, reducing penalties for not meeting high thresholds, according to Bowen.

In some instances, the state has advanced nursing facilities money through the bailout process or provided more money than a facility requested. The state may advance facilities funds if they will not be able to meet payroll for staff, Bowen said, but she added that the state was more likely to provide less — not more — than a company requested.

The state has recouped every advance or was in the process of recouping them, according to the department’s rate setting division.

As part of an extraordinary funding review, Jaime Mooney, the director of the rate setting division, said the state examines a company’s finances and whether facilities are in compliance with state and federal requirements.

After the rate setting division reviews the request, combing through the provided financial information such as past-due invoices and the amount of cash on hand, the division makes a recommendation to the DAIL.

The rate setting division also consults with DAIL regarding possible issues with the care provided by the requesting facility. But Mooney said she couldn’t recall ever denying a facility’s request due to the quality of care.

The state restricts grant use, and facilities cannot pay penalties or exorbitant owner-administrator fees with the funds, according to Mooney.

The facility must also meet reporting requirements, including providing updated financial information, she said.

According to Labun, nursing home owners need to demonstrate they don’t have money from other sources. That prevents companies that own many facilities from shifting their investments to out-of-state homes and then requesting bailouts from Vermont.

In the past, nursing homes had savings they could rely on when reimbursement rates weren’t covering expenses, Labun said. But, during the pandemic, nursing homes’ coffers ran dry, and extraordinary financial relief was retrofitted to respond to the emergency, Labun said.

Nursing homes typically used extraordinary financial relief in one-off cash flow emergencies to “fight financial storms that they might not otherwise have been able to weather,” according to Labun.

That’s now changed, and the cost of nursing is driving the crunch.

Contract staff tend to cost facilities at least twice as much as permanent staff, contributing to nursing homes’ financial distress, Labun said. The use of contract staff in Vermont has fallen slightly, according to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data. But the state’s rate is still exceedingly high compared with the national average, Labun said.

While the nation saw heightened rates of contract staff at the onset of the pandemic, the rates have generally returned to the pre-pandemic norm, said Richard Mollot, executive director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition, a national nonprofit organization.

Vermont nursing homes had the highest rate of contract staff employment compared with those in other states in 2024, peaking at 31 percent in the first quarter of 2024, according to analysis of Medicaid data by the Long Term Care Community Coalition. The national average in the same period was 8 percent.

Mollot said nursing homes often use a larger number of contract staff when there is high attrition among permanent staff.

Staffing tends to be the highest expenditure for nursing homes, and oftentimes nursing homes that work with temporary staffing agencies are contractually obligated to pay contract staff more than permanent staff, said Kaili Kuiper, Vermont Legal Aid’s long-term care ombudsman. That means nursing homes spend much of their budget on filling the staffing gap.

This is a “difficult cycle to break, because there’s only so much money to go around,” Kuiper said. The cycle can also cause poor care, and Kuiper said her office has seen “a lot of issues that are related to there not being enough staffing to provide the care that’s needed,” including problems with response times and hygiene.

Vermont’s demographic challenges are driving the underlying problem of nursing homes’ high use of contract staff, Labun said.

So, in recent years, the Legislature has allocated some funds to rebuild the nursing workforce.

The state put half a million dollars toward attracting and keeping licensed nursing assistants in the current fiscal year budget. That investment was an attempt at addressing the upstream causes of nursing homes’ financial woes, according to state Senator Richard Westman, Republican of Lamoille, who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee and serves on the board of a rural hospital.

The state plans to draw down federal funds for workforce development from the Civil Monetary Penalty Reinvestment Program that had previously been held up in between the President Joe Biden’s and President Trump’s administrations and during the federal shutdown, Labun said.

The legislative investment was far less than the money spent on extraordinary relief, but Westman argued that prioritization makes sense, given the financial weakness of some facilities. In the last two years, about two-thirds of nursing homes have requested extraordinary relief, he said in a May interview.

“I think one could make an argument that without that help, they probably would have gone out of business,” Westman said.

Staffing underlies the financial challenges, Westman said, echoing others. Investing in nurse recruitment and retention, as well as increasing reimbursement rates nursing homes receive, could prevent the facilities’ reliance on bailout money, he suggested.

Kuiper said that using temporary emergency staff is an important tool. As the state’s advocate for nursing home residents, Kuiper said employing contract staff is a better alternative than allowing a facility to be understaffed.

But in the long run, Kuiper said she would like to see “a stronger movement away from temporary staff,” and for the care community to prioritize strategies to curb the high use of contract staff as the “status quo.”

Former VTDigger reporter Peter D’Auria contributed reporting.

This story was originally published by VTDigger and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

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VT Lottery Mega Millions, Gimme 5 results for May 8, 2026

Published

8 hours ago

May 9, 2026

Press Room

Powerball, Mega Millions jackpots: What to know in case you win

Here’s what to know in case you win the Powerball or Mega Millions jackpot.

Just the FAQs, USA TODAY

The Vermont Lottery offers several draw games for those willing to make a bet to win big.

Those who want to play can enter the MegaBucks and Lucky for Life games as well as the national Powerball and Mega Millions games. Vermont also partners with New Hampshire and Maine for the Tri-State Lottery, which includes the Mega Bucks, Gimme 5 as well as the Pick 3 and Pick 4.

Drawings are held at regular days and times, check the end of this story to see the schedule.

Here’s a look at May 8, 2026, results for each game:

Winning Vermont Mega Millions numbers from May 8 drawing

37-47-49-51-58, Mega Ball: 16

Check Vermont Mega Millions payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Gimme 5 numbers from May 8 drawing

06-10-11-36-37

Check Gimme 5 payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Pick 3 numbers from May 8 drawing

Day: 3-6-1

Evening: 0-3-6

Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Pick 4 numbers from May 8 drawing

Day: 6-3-7-3

Evening: 7-1-6-1

Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from May 8 drawing

14-16-21-43-51, Bonus: 03

Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.

Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results

Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your lottery prize

For Vermont Lottery prizes up to $499, winners can claim their prize at any authorized Vermont Lottery retailer or at the Vermont Lottery Headquarters by presenting the signed winning ticket for validation. Prizes between $500 and $5,000 can be claimed at any M&T Bank location in Vermont during the Vermont Lottery Office’s business hours, which are 8a.m.-4p.m. Monday through Friday, except state holidays.

For prizes over $5,000, claims must be made in person at the Vermont Lottery headquarters. In addition to signing your ticket, you will need to bring a government-issued photo ID, and a completed claim form.

All prize claims must be submitted within one year of the drawing date. For more information on prize claims or to download a Vermont Lottery Claim Form, visit the Vermont Lottery’s FAQ page or contact their customer service line at (802) 479-5686.

Vermont Lottery Headquarters

1311 US Route 302, Suite 100

Barre, VT

05641

When are the Vermont Lottery drawings held?

Powerball: 10:59 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
Mega Millions: 11 p.m. Tuesday and Friday.
Gimme 5: 6:55 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Lucky for Life: 10:38 p.m. daily.
Pick 3 Day: 1:10 p.m. daily.
Pick 4 Day: 1:10 p.m. daily.
Pick 3 Evening: 6:55 p.m. daily.
Pick 4 Evening: 6:55 p.m. daily.
Megabucks: 7:59 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
Millionaire for Life: 11:15 p.m. daily

What is Vermont Lottery Second Chance?

Vermont’s 2nd Chance lottery lets players enter eligible non-winning instant scratch tickets into a drawing to win cash and/or other prizes. Players must register through the state’s official Lottery website or app. The drawings are held quarterly or are part of an additional promotion, and are done at Pollard Banknote Limited in Winnipeg, MB, Canada.

This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Vermont editor. You can send feedback using this form.

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Vermont

Alison Clarkson’s legacy in Vermont legislature – Valley News

Published

20 hours ago

May 8, 2026

Press Room

Alison Clarkson’s legacy in Vermont legislature – Valley News

WOODSTOCK — Alison Clarkson and Mike Marcotte started in the Vermont Legislature the same year, after winning election in 2004. Beyond that, they would seem at first not to have much in common.

Marcotte, a Republican, grew up in Newport, Vt., near the Canadian border, while Clarkson, a Democrat, grew up in Buffalo, N.Y., in a politically active family, went to Harvard and then produced theater in New York City before moving to Vermont in the 1990s. They’re from opposing parties at a time of growing partisanship, and it’s safe to say that where Marcotte is a steady, no-nonsense Vermonter, Clarkson is more outspoken, a live wire, even.

State Sen. Alison Clarkson, D-Woodstock, greets a group of her supporters from Woodstock, including her campaign treasurer Ann Boyd, foreground, during a recess in the Senate during their visit to the state house in Montpelier, Vt., on Thursday, May 8, 2026 for “Alison In Action Day.” The group toured the building and watched proceedings from the Senate gallery before having lunch with Clarkson. JAMES M. PATTERSON / Valley News

“Alison’s flamboyant, to say the least, but her heart is in the same place mine is,” Marcotte said in a phone interview. She wants to help the people of Vermont and “when you’re working on the subjects that we’re working on, there’s no political divide there,” he said.

And so as chairman of the Vermont House Commerce and Economic Development Committee, Marcotte, R-Coventry, has worked closely with Clarkson, D-Woodstock, who chairs the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs.

For example, together with their committees, they developed the state’s new Office of Workforce Strategy and Development, an administrative agency overseen by the governor’s office.

But now after serving in the House for six terms and five terms in the Senate, this term will be Clarkson’s last. She will leave Montpelier after 22 years with a reputation for working doggedly for her constituents and for bridging a previous generation of lawmakers, particularly in the Senate, and a new, younger corps who are picking up the baton.

“Building trust and building relationships, that’s how you get things done,” Clarkson said. “You’ve got to take time to get to know each other.”

Marcotte, who also has decided not to seek a new term, has seen this belief, and Clarkson’s work ethic, in action.

“I just think that she’s done the job that she was elected to do, over and above what the expectations were,” Marcotte said.

A varied career

Clarkson first ran for the Vermont House seat representing Woodstock and Plymouth in 2004. She was 49 at the time and had two children in school. Her eldest, Ward Goodenough, was in boarding school, and William was at Woodstock Elementary, age 10.

To put the length of her career in the Legislature into perspective, both of her boys got married last summer. Ward is Windsor County State’s Attorney and Will works for Indeed, the job search website, in New York City.

Her career in the Statehouse has been varied, which has kept her going. “There is no same-old, same-old” in the Legislature, she said.

She served on the Judiciary Committee and on Ways and Means, which writes tax policy, in the House, and served two terms as majority leader in the Senate.

The Legislature’s achievements during her tenure were groundbreaking, including the 2009 passage of the state’s gay marriage law, and expanding a patient’s choices at the end of life, the so-called “death with dignity” law, which passed in 2013. The state also has tightened gun safety laws.

And much of this work was completed with women leading the Legislature. At one point, all four top legislative positions were held by women, Clarkson noted. She called it “the golden age of women in leadership,” in Vermont.

In recent years, Clarkson has been in the forefront of efforts to pass consumer protection laws, and to improve opportunities for working Vermonters through economic development, by virtue of her committee chairwomanship.

“I love the range of it,” she said of leading the Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs Committee. The “general affairs” part of the title includes regulating alcohol and cannabis, labor issues and consumer protection, including data protection.

The state’s crises

But the list of issues that have resisted solution over the past two decades is long and consequential, topped by the cost of health care, the state’s fragmented education landscape, and the affordability crisis that has priced many young and working people out of the state, despite a desperate need for workers.

The difficulty of addressing these issues stems in part from Vermont’s small size up against global economic forces, Clarkson said. Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, has run on affordability over the past decade and there hasn’t been much improvement.

“There’s what things cost, that we have little control over,” Clarkson said. “Then there’s what people are earning.” Vermont underpays, she said.

That means residents who work remotely from Vermont at jobs in larger markets out-earn their neighbors who are reliant on the local economy. And housing, in particular, is part of a global market. This, too, is not a new problem.

“People with New York and Boston incomes are coming here and buying homes, which is driving prices higher,” Clarkson told the Valley News in October 2004, during her first campaign for the House.

Now, she said, “I have a son who’s trying to buy a house in the town he grew up in and it’s brutal.” Woodstock could use 300 units of housing right away, “and it would all be full,” she said.

Through her committee’s work, she has seen how time-consuming it is to encourage housing construction. A new housing law enacted last year, and measures under consideration this year, will take time to bear fruit.

Public education will likely have to undergo a form of regionalization at the middle and high school level, Clarkson said, and she suspects that some of the state’s small elementary schools will close or merge if they are no longer viable.

But she doesn’t see much appetite for a sweeping redrawing of school districts, either among the public or among lawmakers. There’s pressure to cut costs, but it’s also possible that, as high as the price tag may be, the state is spending what it should be spending on education, Clarkson said.

She was the first lawmaker to argue that the state shouldn’t be sending public education money to out-of-state private schools, a practice that was curtailed under Act 73, the sweeping education law enacted last year.

“My concern is that the Legislature could decide to spend less and rein in education spending to the point where it would be punitive,” Clarkson said. “I’m not sure we’ve found the sweet spot yet in the financial model,” she added.

Building trust

As much as she has tried to build relationships in Montpelier, she worries that there isn’t going to be enough trust built up among lawmakers to solve the state’s most pressing problems.

Since she started in the House, fewer lawmakers stay overnight in the capital, and there are fewer events where lawmakers get together, Clarkson said. It’s easier for people who get to know each other to work together and make deals.

“I would say the Legislature has not really made it a priority to build the relationships to move beyond partisanship,” Clarkson said.

Even so, the process still works pretty well, she said. Legislators have to meet in committee and get to know each other there. And everyone hears the same testimony, so they’re working from the same facts.

Being a legislator is a people-focused job, Clarkson said.

“If you aren’t genuinely interested in people and what their needs are, and how we solve the problems they face, you won’t last long in the Legislature,” she said.

While Clarkson is very much a joiner — her husband, law professor Oliver Goodenough, called her “naturally gregarious” — she can also come off as a forceful personality.

When she first met Clarkson, in 2016, state Sen. Becca White, D-Hartford, found her off-putting.

“She was such a starkly different political figure than anyone I had ever met,” White said in a phone interview. Clarkson is a “loud, in-charge type of person,” as White is herself, she acknowledged.

White, then a Hartford Selectboard member barely of legal drinking age, was interested in running for a vacant Windsor District Senate seat. Clarkson invited her up to the Statehouse for lunch.

White was the lunch, pretty much. Clarkson told her, ” ‘I’m going to go out there and I’m going to win it,’ ” White recalled. “I chose, at that point, not to run for Senate.”

She did later run successfully for the House, and for Senate in 2022. For White, and for Sen. Joe Major, who was elected in 2024, Clarkson has been a transitional figure.

When she reached the Senate in 2017, Clarkson’s colleagues in the Windsor District delegation were Dick McCormack, who retired last year, and Alice Nitka, two veteran Democrats. Both had been around long enough to cast votes for Act 60, the state’s landmark education finance law, in 1997, shortly before White turned 3.

“Alison is one of my most formative mentors,” White said.

And they’re good friends. Clarkson’s outsize personality makes it easier for White to be “a more authentic version of myself,” she said.

It helps, too, that Clarkson knows everyone in and around the Statehouse.

“She knows exactly who she is, and she works extremely hard,” White said.

With lawmakers like Clarkson, 71, and her collaborator Marcotte, 67, leaving the Statehouse, another generational shift is underway.

“I do see a lot of folks who are exhausted,” White said, particularly in the House.

The biggest change in her 22 years as a legislator, Clarkson said, was the volume of email. Sifting through and responding to it has made the job harder, the days longer.

Looking ahead

Clarkson realized in 2024 that she was facing her last term in Montpelier.

“I got to the end of the campaign and I just knew I didn’t want to have to campaign again, for myself,” she said in an interview at her Woodstock home.

Those last two words are important. While she’s leaving the Legislature after this term, Clarkson plans to stay engaged in politics and public life. She’ll help with other campaigns and stay involved in issues where she feels she has something to offer.

“The gift of this building,” she said in a phone interview from the Statehouse lounge, where she works until 11 or 11:30 most nights, “is you see all the opportunities and all the needs.”

Post-Legislature, Clarkson plans to take on one opportunity, establishing a new culinary school in Vermont, and one need, becoming a guardian ad litem.

Vermont is a farm-to-table state, Clarkson said, and has struggled to train people for its vibrant restaurant scene since the closure of the for-profit New England Culinary Institute in 2021.

“When NECI closed, we lost a very important workforce development pipeline,” she said. The school also brought students into the state.

Clarkson first learned of the guardian ad litem, or GAL, program when she was on the House Judiciary Committee. A GAL is a trained volunteer who represents children in court, particularly in cases of abuse or neglect.

Vermont currently has 278 GALs, but needs around 400.

“I think I could be helpful,” she said.

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Vermont

VT Lottery Gimme 5, Pick 3 results for May 7, 2026

Published

1 day ago

May 8, 2026

Press Room

Powerball, Mega Millions jackpots: What to know in case you win

Here’s what to know in case you win the Powerball or Mega Millions jackpot.

Just the FAQs, USA TODAY

The Vermont Lottery offers several draw games for those willing to make a bet to win big.

Drawings are held at regular days and times, check the end of this story to see the schedule.

Here’s a look at May 7, 2026, results for each game:

Winning Gimme 5 numbers from May 7 drawing

07-20-33-37-39

Check Gimme 5 payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Pick 3 numbers from May 7 drawing

Day: 2-5-1

Evening: 9-5-1

Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Pick 4 numbers from May 7 drawing

Day: 0-4-5-3

Evening: 6-6-7-0

Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from May 7 drawing

05-08-21-44-48, Bonus: 01

Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.

Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results

Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your lottery prize

Vermont Lottery Headquarters

1311 US Route 302, Suite 100

Barre, VT

05641

When are the Vermont Lottery drawings held?

Powerball: 10:59 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
Mega Millions: 11 p.m. Tuesday and Friday.
Gimme 5: 6:55 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Lucky for Life: 10:38 p.m. daily.
Pick 3 Day: 1:10 p.m. daily.
Pick 4 Day: 1:10 p.m. daily.
Pick 3 Evening: 6:55 p.m. daily.
Pick 4 Evening: 6:55 p.m. daily.
Megabucks: 7:59 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
Millionaire for Life: 11:15 p.m. daily

What is Vermont Lottery Second Chance?

This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Vermont editor. You can send feedback using this form.

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