Vermont
Vermont’s largest substance use rehab facility will no longer accept patients on methadone – VTDigger
Valley Vista, Vermont’s largest substance use disorder rehabilitation facility, will no longer take patients on methadone, an administrator said Thursday.
The facility, which has locations in Bradford and Vergennes, will continue to serve current patients who are on methadone, Kevin Hamel, Valley Vista’s vice president of medical and clinical services, told facility staff in an email Thursday morning. But Valley Vista will no longer accept new patients who use the recovery drug, he said.
In an interview, Hamel said Valley Vista currently has seven patients on methadone, out of a total of 78, across both of its locations. Transporting those patients to and from methadone clinics can cost up to $400 a day, Hamel said, a sum the facility can no longer afford.
“The cost of staffing is going up,” he said. “The cost for us to be able to provide health insurance for employees is significantly going up this year.”
Methadone is a drug used to mitigate withdrawal symptoms in people recovering from substance use disorder. The drug, which usually comes in the form of a drinkable liquid, is tightly regulated and can only be dispensed from designated methadone clinics in limited doses.
That means patients who take the drug during recovery must return regularly to methadone clinics. Valley Vista’s Bradford patients travel to St. Johnsbury — about half an hour away — and Vergennes patients must make the roughly 45-minute trip to Burlington to get methadone treatment, Hamel said.
Valley Vista’s change in policy comes amid an apparent disagreement with state regulators over reimbursement for transportation to and from methadone clinics.
In his email to Valley Vista staff Thursday, Hamel wrote, “We recognize that this is an underserved population; however, the reality is that the State of Vermont is unwilling to cover the transportation costs for patients to receive their doses.”
The situation appears to be more complex, however.
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Vermont Medicaid will pay for transportation to clinics, but only if the vehicles are “operated by a state contractor or subcontractor, in order to adhere to regulations regarding licensure and safety,” Alex McCracken, a spokesperson for the Department of Vermont Health Access, said in an email.
Under those rules, patients have access to various public transit operators across the state.
But Hamel, of Valley Vista, said riding on public transit could lead to safety concerns for the facility’s patients, and that schedules didn’t always line up. It’s safer and more effective for Valley Vista to have staff members drive patients and supervise their trips, he said.
“It’s best to be in a closed environment with our staff bringing them, who are familiar with them, are aware of what’s going on with them,” Hamel said. “And can keep an eye on them to make sure that they’re not talking with other people at the clinic, to make sure that there’s nothing going on there.”
But Valley Vista is not eligible for Medicaid reimbursement if it drives patients on its own, which means the rehab center is footing the bill with no help from Medicaid. About 80% of Valley Vista’s patients are on Vermont Medicaid, according to Hamel.
From 2021 through mid-2023, the state Department of Health provided Valley Vista with Covid-19 funding for patients’ transportation to and from methadone clinics.
But that money, which came from federal Covid-19 pandemic aid, “was always intended to be a short-term solution,” Kyle Casteel, a spokesperson for the Vermont Department of Health, said in an email.
Valley Vista could “use a transportation vendor whose expense is reimbursable through Medicaid or to obtain a new license for onsite methadone treatment from the (federal Drug Enforcement Administration),” Casteel said. “These options remain open to Valley Vista at this time and the Health Department is prepared to support Valley Vista should it choose to pursue either of these options.”
Since his email to staff Thursday morning, Hamel said Valley Vista and the state have set up a meeting next week to discuss the situation.
Until then, however, the decision could create another barrier for Vermonters seeking treatment for substance use disorder.
“Vermonters continue to struggle with accessing the type of residential treatment that they need,” Christopher Smith, the chief clinical officer at the nonprofit Spectrum Youth and Family Services, said in an interview Thursday.
“As a community, as a state, we need to put effort into building the residential treatment that’s going to work for all Vermonters,” Smith said. “And that means addressing appropriate funding and appropriate services that meet the needs of people who have addiction issues.”
A 21-year-old is dead after a pickup truck slammed head-on into her vehicle on Interstate 89 Wednesday evening in Bolton, Vermont, and the other driver involved has been cited.
State police say they responded around 5:22 p.m. to reports of a wrong-way driver in the area of mile marker 71. As troopers were responding, a multi-vehicle crash on the interstate was reported to dispatchers.
A preliminary investigation shows 45-year-old Timothy Wooster was driving a Toyota Tundra in the northbound lane when he crossed the median into the southbound lane, where he continued traveling the wrong way until he collided head-on with a Kia Sportage that was being driven by 21-year-old Hailey Westcot, police said.
A third vehicle, a Cascadia Freightliner, was traveling southbound when the head-on collision happened ahead, causing the vehicle to strike Westcot’s car and then rollover.
Westcot, of Northfield, Vt., was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Wooster, of Jericho, Vt., was taken to University of Vermont Medical Center to be treated for serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
The third driver who was involved, 50-year-old Douglas Bailey, of Londonderry, New Hampshire, was evaluated on scene and did not report any injuries, police added.
Officials haven’t said what led Wooster to allegedly drive in the wrong direction on the highway. Wooster was cited on a charge of grossly negligent operation with death resulting. Further charges will be determined as the investigation continues, according to police.
Any witnesses are asked to contact Trooper Shawn Morrow at 802-878-7111. Anonymous tips can be submitted online here. The investigation remains ongoing.
It’s unclear if Wooster has obtained legal representation at this time. He’s due in Chittenden County Superior Court on Jan. 29, 2026.
The University of Vermont men’s rugby team romped the University of Chicago last weekend, 71-5, to win its first-ever national championship. It’s the second time, notably, that a UVM sports team has won a national-level title in the past year.
Rugby is not a varsity sport at UVM — such as soccer or basketball — which means the school’s men’s and women’s teams play outside of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA. The men’s team plays in National Collegiate Rugby’s Division II, which has more than 100 teams in different regional conferences across the country.
The team’s win Sunday capped an undefeated season that also saw it dispatch rivals in earlier rounds of the Division II tournament by double-digit margins.
“It really hasn’t even set in yet, still. Every time I see a picture or something, I’m like, holy — I can’t believe it,” said Jack Worobel, a senior mechanical engineering major at UVM who plays in the No. 4, or “lock,” position. “It’s awesome.”
In UVM’s rugby league, 15 players are on the field for each team at a time. Players advance the ball by running or kicking it but aren’t allowed to pass the ball forward. Points come primarily through “tries,” which are worth five points each and scored by bringing the ball into the opponent’s in-goal area and touching it to the ground.
Worobel credited UVM’s win to strong bonds that he said he and his teammates have built up over the past four years. A number of the players, including himself, have been on the team every year since they were first-year students, he said.
UVM has had a men’s rugby team since 1970, according to a school press release.
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The University of Vermont men’s rugby team handily defeated the University of Chicago 71–5 to win its first ever national championship. Photo courtesy of National Collegiate Rugby
“We all do anything for each other. Anyone would do a favor for anyone else on this team — I think that’s where the win comes (from),” Worobel said Wednesday. “It’s not from the skill or the talents. Really, it’s what’s off the field.”
The rugby team’s win comes about a year after UVM’s men’s soccer team — which competes at the highest level of collegiate athletics — won the NCAA Division I championship last December. UVM has also won six NCAA championships in skiing, with the most recent coming in 2012.
Police are asking for the public’s help in their ongoing investigation into a stolen all-terrain vehicle in Derby, Vermont.
State police say they were notified around 4 p.m. on Oct. 31 that a Camouflage 2008 Yamaha Rhino 700 ATV had been stolen from a driveway on Main St. The theft occurred some time between 10 p.m. on Oct. 30 and 7 a.m. on Oct. 31.
No other details were immediately available. Police did released two photos as part of the investigation.
Anyone with information about this theft is encouraged to call Vermont State Police at 802-334-8881, or leave an anonymous tip online.
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