The University of Vermont Medical Center is pausing plans to build a new outpatient surgical center in South Burlington just a couple months after getting approval from state regulators.
UVM Medical Center leadership say they halted the $130 million project after the Green Mountain Care Board reduced the hospital's budget for the 2025 fiscal year.
“Capital projects like surgical centers really come from when you earn a margin; our margin is going to be stressed in '25," said Dr. Stephen Leffler, the president of UVM Medical Center. "And so we're trying to be very, very careful about how we spend dollars. When your margin is smaller, you have less capital for projects.”
Mike Fisher, Vermont's state health care advocate, said his office supported the surgical center plan because of the much-needed care it would offer Vermonters, and he expressed disappointment about the pause.
But he also said holding off on the project is a good idea to ensure Vermont's health system can afford it.
"I think that this pause is reasonable, because we can't keep spending money in health care assuming that somebody will pay the bills without figuring out who is going to pay the bills," Fisher said.
During the regulatory approval process for the \enter, other hospitals, lawmakers and state regulators were also concerned the facility may draw patients from other providers outside Chittenden County.
Leffler said they're now aiming to begin construction of the center in 2026.
A recent analysis presented to the Green Mountain Care Board with suggestions for how to cut Vermont health care costs and preserve access to care recommended that state regulators not approve any more hospital-based outpatient units.
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