The University of Vermont Health Network announced cuts to a range of patient services that will take place over the next several months to rein in costs.
The hospital system said it plans to close its inpatient psychiatric unit at Central Vermont Medical Center in Berlin, which serves up to eight patients a day. Fewer patients will be admitted for overnight stays at UVM Medical Center in Burlington — from about 450 patients down to 400 patients — and the hospital will stop performing kidney transplants and instead send patients to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire for the procedure.
Outside of hospital services, the health system plans to no longer run kidney dialysis clinics in St. Albans, Rutland and Newport, which currently serve 115 patients. The hospital system said they are actively looking for other providers to operate those sites. They will also consolidate family medicine and rehabilitation clinics in central Vermont.
The organization is also “cutting over $18 million in administrative costs this year,” after eliminating about 130 open non-clinical positions last year, according to a UVM Health network press release. Hospital leaders said this will impact initiatives to reduce wait times and delay facility maintenance and technology upgrades.
The health system could cut up to 200 jobs because of these changes, including travel staff.
UVM Health Network says cutting patient services are necessary to comply with budget orders imposed by the Green Mountain Care Board, the state’s health care regulator.
“These decisions we are being forced to make are painful because there are patients connected to each one of them,” Dr. Sunny Eappen, the CEO of UVM Health Network, said in a press release.
Hospital system leaders said service cuts came from budget orders to UVM Medical Center and Central Vermont Medical Center that require “$122 million of revenue to be eliminated.”
These decisions we are being forced to make are painful because there are patients connected to each one of them.Dr. Sunny Eappen, CEO, UVM Health Network
Some unionized staff disagreed with that assessment and questioned how being part of the health network has improved patient care at individual hospitals.
“UVM Health Network and CVMC management are blaming the Green Mountain Care Board, however, this is the fault of executives and leaders who have failed to plan their budgets accordingly,” Sue Becker, an inpatient psych nurse at Central Vermont Medical Center, said in a press release from the labor union AFT Vermont.
The Green Mountain Care Board said they approved a nearly $1.9 billion budget for the UVM Medical Center for the next fiscal year, an increase of $64 million over last year. In doing so, the board reduced commercial insurance prices by 1% from what was approved last year.
In a statement, the board said UVM Medical Center previously “failed to properly account for government revenue and thereby requested higher than necessary commercial reimbursements from Vermonters.” The state has the highest prices nationwide for individual health coverage.
The Green Mountain Care Board cited other opportunities for the hospital system to manage costs like increasing productivity and reducing spending on temporary staff, instead of cutting patient services. The board also said UVM Medical Center lent $60 million to a New York-based hospital in the health network, Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh, to pay for drugs and cover salaries.
“The GMCB has inquired as to the status of repayment of these amounts and is awaiting further information,” according to the press release.
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