Vermont
Opinion — Christine Hallquist: Telehealth can transform health care in Vermont
This commentary is by Christine Hallquist of Burlington. She was the Democratic nominee for Vermont governor in 2018, and was CEO of the Vermont Electric Cooperative for 13 years.
You’re home alone when you start having pain and tightness in your chest. It’s spreading to your shoulder, and you’re nauseous. You’re having a heart attack, and if you don’t get help immediately, it may be too late. The first thing you should do is call 911, which requires a reliable phone and/or broadband connection. Unfortunately, in Vermont, not everyone has one yet.
Vermont Community Broadband Board is working to change that, which will give every Vermonter access to telehealth. If you’re at high risk for a heart attack, your doctor might recommend virtual monitoring, which would automatically alert first responders of a heart attack. And that is just one of the benefits and ways that telehealth can revolutionize health care for Vermonters.
In Vermont, almost everyone has insurance, but many can’t find or afford care. Vermonters pay some of the highest prices nationwide for individual health coverage. The monthly cost of a typical plan on the state’s insurance marketplace has doubled over the past six years — from $474 to $948. Nine of the state’s 14 hospitals are losing money, and the state’s largest insurer is struggling to remain solvent.
“There is no hospital in Vermont that is not in jeopardy,” said Dr. Bruce Hamory, who authored a recent report on Vermont’s health care system. Hamory’s recommendation: push as much care out of the hospitals as possible and regionalize Vermont’s siloed hospital system.
Telehealth can transform health care in Vermont. It enables patients to connect with health care providers remotely. This can greatly reduce barriers to care for rural residents, who often face significant challenges due to long distances to health care facilities.
By enabling regular check-ins and remote monitoring of chronic conditions, complications can be caught early, allowing for prompt intervention and preventing serious issues. Patients can quickly consult with specialists located far away, reducing wait times and expediting diagnosis and treatment plans. Telehealth check-ins and remote monitoring after hospitalization can help recovery, identify complications early and prevent unnecessary readmissions.
Telehealth is safer. Less travel means fewer car accidents and less pollution. It also means less disease spread, crucial for the chronically ill, pregnant, elderly or immuno-compromised
Telemedicine can connect patients experiencing emergencies with providers for immediate assessment and guidance, leading to faster and more appropriate interventions. Real-time reporting of vitals, such as temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate and blood pressure during transport helps reduce unnecessary visits and enables professionals to prepare for intake.
Patients with heart failure can use wearable devices to monitor vital signs and be constantly reviewed using artificial intelligence. This can trigger intervention, including rapid evaluation of stroke symptoms by neurologists, leading to faster diagnosis and treatment, potentially minimizing neurological damage. Remote monitoring can also be used for patients with epilepsy, and orthodontists are using a piece of hardware in a patient’s mouth to monitor for more than 137 possible issues that can arise.
Teletherapy can provide mental health services to people who might otherwise not get treatment due to stigma or geographic barriers, potentially preventing crises. Teledermatology allows individuals to share images of skin abnormalities remotely, facilitating early diagnosis of potentially serious conditions, such as cancer.
Internet access is increasingly recognized as a “super determinant” of health. Additional benefits include the ability to have family members or caregivers at a patient’s appointment, even if they live far away. And seeing a patient in their home gives providers a more complete picture of the patient’s life in order to provide more personalized care.
Telehealth is also better for providers. Fewer physical facilities mean lower costs. Telehealth will reduce unnecessary/expensive emergency room visits because of increased preventive care. Continuous patient monitoring and quick detection will reduce expensive interventions.
It’s important to understand there is only one technology that can meet the demands of telehealth: fiber-optic networks. Their high speed, reliability, low latency, immense bandwidth capacity and resistance to interference allow faster data transmission with minimal signal degradation.
Fiber optics allow for virtually infinite capacity, much more than DSL, wireless, cable, or low earth orbit satellite, and reliably transfer large files, real-time video and real-time monitoring of vitals. Fiber-optic networks are much faster and less prone to interference, ensuring a stable and consistent connection. The last thing you want when you are monitoring a patient is an interruption in the data stream.
Fiber-optic networks can carry large volumes of data without significant performance degradation. Signal quality remains high over long distances, allowing it to perform in extreme weather conditions and emergencies. And fiber lasts significantly longer than other cable types like copper.
Fiber-optic networks are scalable and can be upgraded without requiring extensive infrastructure changes, ensuring long-term adaptability. Additionally, the rapid advancements in fiber-optic technology hardware make them ready to support new standards and applications, paving the way for future growth and innovation, as they enable telehealth to revive the sustainability and accessibility of Vermont’s health care system.
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 23, 2025, results for each game:
Winning Vermont Mega Millions numbers from May 23 drawing
07-18-40-55-68, Mega Ball: 18
Check Vermont Mega Millions payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Gimme 5 numbers from May 23 drawing
04-08-12-19-27
Check Gimme 5 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Lucky For Life VT numbers from May 23 drawing
04-11-15-19-38, Lucky Ball: 04
Check Lucky For Life VT payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Pick 3 numbers from May 23 drawing
Day: 4-1-7
Evening: 5-8-4
Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Pick 4 numbers from May 23 drawing
Day: 4-1-1-5
Evening: 7-2-0-5
Check Pick 4 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.
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.
Vermont
Vermont’s state parks are offering free entry for income-eligible residents in 2025 – VTDigger
More than 100,000 income-eligible residents are going to have free access to Vermont’s state parks this year, thanks to a first-in-the-nation pilot program.
The Park Access Fund Pilot Program will give people who receive benefits through the state’s Economic Services Division or the Women, Infants and Children program free entrance to any of Vermont’s 55 state parks during the season, which runs from May through October.
To participate in the program, residents can show their EBT or WIC cards at the park entrance. Those who are eligible but do not have an EBT card can visit their local Economic Services Division District Office to request a card that can be used for state park entrance in 2025, according to the Park Access Fund website.
Once inside, all guests have the option to participate in free park-led activities, such as bird walks, concerts and evening campfires. The state parks events and programs page contains information on upcoming programming.
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The initiative originated from an idea to bring park accessibility to Vermonters experiencing food insecurity, according to Sarah Alberghini Winters, the executive director of Vermont Parks Forever, which runs the program.
This new program is an extension of the Parks Access Fund, which grants free park passes to 55 nonprofit community partners to help their clients get outside, according to Winters.
Winters said she hopes this year’s expansion of the program is well-utilized. Depending on its success and donors’ willingness to support future efforts, the pilot program could continue in 2026 and beyond, she said.
“It really takes a village,” Winters said. “We’re so thankful to have support from local and national foundations.”
Vermonters not eligible for this pilot program can also receive assistance accessing state parks through library passes and the Green Mountain Passport.
Financial barriers are not the only thing preventing some Vermonters from getting outside, Winters said, but this program is a starting point. She said her hope is that Vermont will set an example for other states to consider expanding programs for outdoor accessibility.
“We’ll continue to learn about how we can help with other barriers that exist,” she said.
MONTPELIER — Vermont Gov. Phil Scott signed lawmakers’ state budget proposal for the 2026 fiscal year into law Wednesday. The plan lays out $9.01 billion in state spending for the yearlong period starting July 1 — and includes a handful of new measures designed to limit the impacts of potential cuts to the state’s federal funding.
Scott, a Republican, was notably complimentary of the House and Senate’s budget bill in a letter to legislators that accompanied his signature. Democratic leadership in both chambers, knowing they almost certainly could not override a budget veto this year, trimmed tens of millions of dollars in proposed “base” spending — money expected to be appropriated year-over-year — from the legislation after Scott insisted on cuts.
The governor had proposed an $8.99 billion state budget in January.
“I appreciate that this budget makes important affordability investments,” Scott wrote, pointing to lawmakers’ use of about $75 million from the state’s general fund that’s expected to help reduce the property tax bills people pay to support education.
Scott also complimented how lawmakers set aside about $13 million in the budget to offset a slate of proposed tax credits that would benefit low-income families, workers and veterans, as well as retirees and people receiving military pensions.
The credits are included in a separate bill, S.51, over which House and Senate leaders still need to work out their differences in a joint conference committee.
While the state budget is typically lawmakers’ last act before adjournment every year, this year, there are still several major bills working their way through the Statehouse that deal with some of the headline issues from last fall’s election.
In his letter, the governor urged legislators to pass a version of this year’s landmark education reform bill, H.454. The bill is being debated on the Senate floor Thursday as school district leaders — and a number of senators themselves — have panned the language that several of the chamber’s committees drafted in recent weeks.
Senators were weighing to what extent they should revise their version of the bill to be more in line with what passed out of the House last month. That version appeared to have more support among the members of the Senate’s Democratic majority.
Scott has threatened to use his power to summon lawmakers back to the Statehouse if they adjourn for the year without reaching agreement on an education bill.
“While not perfect, (the budget bill) makes critical investments in affordability, housing, education and public safety,” the governor wrote Wednesday. “But we must focus on the policy bills that fix what’s broken so the funding can have its intended impact.”
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