Stephen Leffler has been named the leader of Vermont’s largest health care provider on a permanent basis.
Leffler assumed the role of interim CEO at University of Vermont Health in October after its previous leader, Sunny Eappen, resigned amid growing anger over the state’s sky-high health care prices. Network leaders said at the time that Eappen’s departure was a mutual decision — but intended to signal a change in direction.
UVM Health’s board of trustees announced Leffler’s official appointment as CEO on Monday.
“Steve is a steady and proactive leader who is widely trusted and respected across the region,” said board chair Tom Golonka in a statement. “With health care at a crisis point in Vermont and northern New York — both in terms of access and affordability — the board has concluded that he has the skills and approach necessary to work in collaboration with stakeholders across the health care ecosystem to address those challenges.”
Executive compensation at the health network, in particular, had outraged regulators and the public. Within days of his appointment as interim CEO, Leffler announced that several top leadership positions would be eliminated. He also said that partner hospitals within the health system would get voting seats on the network’s board. Leffler also told Becker's, a hospital trade publication, that he won't cut any patient services in 2026.
The former emergency room doctor takes over at a pivotal moment for Vermont’s health care system. The state has some of the highest insurance premiums in the nation, in no small part because of high hospital prices. UVM Health, which operates a near-monopoly in certain parts of the state, is under increasing pressure to bring prices under control. Hospitals nationwide, meanwhile, are bracing for upcoming changes to Medicaid.
Leffler will also continue to serve as president of the University of Vermont Medical Center, a role he held before he took over at the network.
UVM Health serves more than a million people in Vermont and upstate New York across six hospitals — including its flagship medical center in Burlington — several primary care practices, outpatient facilities, hospice providers and skilled nursing facilities.
