Legislative Update

Devon Green, Sr. Vice President of Policy & Strategy

On one of the warm days last week, I held open the door at my gym for the person behind me. Lo and behold, a toddler in nothing but a bathing suit and muck boots marched in. The dad and I chuckled about springtime in Vermont, but I realized that the same “muck boot and bathing suit” vibe holds true for this point in the session as legislators and advocates try to tack on last minute proposals or language from stalled bills to the bills that are moving, creating some interesting combinations. Read below to see the latest:

Internationally Trained Physicians: The House Health Care Committee advanced with amendment S.142, which allows the Vermont Board of Medical Practice as overseen by the Vermont Department of Health to work out the bulk of the details of a pathway for licensure for internationally trained physicians through rulemaking. Implementation of the pathway will continue on the 2028 timeline.

Medicaid Miscellaneous Bill: In the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, VAHHS and the Health Care Advocate put forward a proposal for H.611 to continue OneCare’s prior authorization waivers into the Medicaid hospital global budget pilot program. The Department of Vermont Health Access, which oversees Vermont Medicaid, testified that the structure of the Medicaid hospital global budget differs from OneCare and may not be able to be implemented. Instead of adding language to H.611, both parties agreed to continue working on streamlining the prior authorization process.

Hospital Transformation: The Agency of Human Services provided a Vermont health care system transformation update to the House Health Care Committee, outlining hospital efforts in particular. AHS noted that hospitals are engaged in transformation now more than ever due to changes in leadership, financial pressures, and new funding opportunities. They highlighted hospital efforts on shared services to create administrative and clinical efficiencies, moving care out of higher-cost settings and into lower-cost settings, optimizing care coordination and resource allocation statewide, and reassessing hospital service profiles to better match population needs.

UVMH Update: Stephen Leffler, M.D., Chief Executive Officer, University of Vermont Health and President, UVM Medical Center provided an update to the House Health Care Committee. Leffler stressed that UVM Health is committed to reducing costs and operating more efficiently. Highlighted affordability efforts of 2026:

A new sustainability team using the incident command structure to realign costs with expected decreases in revenue
A new BCBSVT contract with a 12% reduction in commercial rates and laboratory and radiology services down as much as 25%
Implementation of prescription drug price caps in Act 55 has resulted in a $110M reduction rather than the projected $60M reduction.

These affordability measures, along with a reduction in utilization, will require UVMH to reduce operational expenses further.

Prohibition of Non-Compete Agreements: After H.205 stalled in the House due to an amendment governing teacher’s contracts, the House General and Housing Committee is looking to add the non-compete provision from that bill crafted by a coalition of employer, labor, and health care representatives to S.230 leg, a bill that makes changes to the Fair Employment Practices Act. The Vermont Medical Society offered further reforms previously found in H.583 that the health care association coalition supports: prohibiting non-solicitation agreements; limiting the use of non-disparagement clauses; and addressing issues with staffing agency contracts.

Mountain Times

Tonia Fleming, director of marketing and planning at Springfield Hospital, recently addressed members of the Ludlow Rotary Club, highlighting both the challenges facing Vermont’s healthcare system and the efforts underway to strengthen services in the region.

Fleming pointed to several ongoing pressures affecting hospitals statewide, including workforce shortages, reimbursement rates that fail to cover costs, increasing patient complexity, and an aging population. She noted a growing demand for behavioral health services, with approximately 30 percent of emergency room visits at Springfield Hospital related to mental health or substance use issues, including a significant number involving young people.

Additional factors, such as transportation barriers, childcare needs, and overall affordability, also impact patient care but remain largely outside the hospital’s direct control, she said.

In response, Springfield Hospital is participating in regional collaboration efforts with nearby facilities, including Grace Cottage Hospital, Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, and Ascutney Hospital and Health Center. These partnerships are exploring ways to share staff, recruit locally trained healthcare workers, and reduce reliance on costly traveling nurses.

Springfield Hospital, which has served a six-county region for more than a century, continues to focus on delivering personalized care within its 25-bed facility. Fleming said the hospital is also seeking to access a portion of the $195 million in recently allocated federal healthcare funding to support its operations and long-term sustainability.

She encouraged community members to compare healthcare costs in advance using resources available on the hospital’s website and to consider receiving care locally. According to Fleming, Springfield Hospital offers a broad range of services—from routine procedures to more complex surgical and diagnostic care—while emphasizing both cost efficiency and convenience.

UVM Medical Center is Losing $460,000 Every Day

Seven Days

UVM Health is taking a financial hit owing to steep cuts in insurance reimbursements and rising expenses, forcing the hospital system to absorb sustained losses. The health network’s flagship hospital, University of Vermont Medical Center, is losing $460,000 each day, UVM Health CEO Dr. Stephen Leffler, told lawmakers on Tuesday.

The finances are prompting a wave of cost-saving measures, which state regulators describe as long-expected consequences of Vermont’s health care cost containment strategy.

Leffler, who is also the chief operating officer of the UVM Medical Center, shared that update with members of the House Health Care Committee days after he presented similar figures at a quarterly staff town hall.

The medical center lost roughly $48 million in the first quarter of 2026, partly because a new Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont contract that took effect January 1 reduced what it can charge for services by an average of 12 percent. Cuts were steeper for some services. Payments for MRIs, CT scans and routine blood tests, for instance, are down by 25 percent or more.

While the financial losses were stark, Leffler and state regulators said the changes were not unexpected, pointing to the new contract and broader constraints on hospital pricing in Vermont’s regulated health care system.

“It’s not surprising to me,” Leffler said, citing the recent changes. “But it is more than we can sustain at this pace, and it’s driving urgency to make changes quicker than we might do otherwise.”

Hundreds of students exposed to health care professions during UVM Health career fair

NBC5

A UVM Health career fair brought hundreds of students to the DoubleTree in South Burlington on Wednesday to learn more about career opportunities in the medical field.

From nursing to radiology to respiratory care, students explored dozens of different paths at the career fair.

"It's so important that we expose young people as early as we can to the different opportunities, so that they know what it takes to actually get themselves there," said Rebecca Kapsalis, the lead of talent acquisition for UVM Health Network.

Organizers said that exposure is critical, as health care systems across Vermont continue to face staffing shortages.

"We have a really low unemployment rate in the state of Vermont, and our population's pretty low. It's really always a high need for us to have our workforce staffing needs filled," said Kapsalis.

The event offered a hands-on look at what it takes to fill these critical roles.

"The licensed nursing assistant program provides an entry into health care, and whether they end up staying within that profession or moving on to another health care profession, it is a great entry point," said Virginia Kittell, a nursing professional development practitioner with UVM Medical Center.

Students said it opened up possibilities they hadn't considered before.

"It's definitely good to stay open-minded, because this has helped me to see a lot of new things that I wasn't really thinking about at the beginning. It really does give you like information about how people take these steps to get to your goal," said Kamille Glosson and Heureuse Ngala Ngala, Essex Tech students.

UVM Health leaders said with training, programs, and tuition support available, they're working to expand future cohorts of health care workers in the state.

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VAHHS 2026 Annual Meeting

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