Green Mountain Care Board

"If you demand top dollar, maybe this isn't the right environment for you," said Owen Foster on Vermont Edition.

The Green Mountain Care Board last week set the 2026 budgets for Vermont's 14 hospitals.

The Green Mountain Care Board has ordered UVM Medical Center to level-fund its net patient revenue next year and also reduce its commercial insurance rate by 16%.

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital has lost money for the past five years, and expects to lose almost $3 million next year. The hospital's proposed budget for next year was inaccurate and incomplete, according to state regulators, and now the hospital might get an independent observer to get its financial reporting together.

Insurance companies will no longer cover certain weight-loss drugs and are expected to save millions on hospital-administered drugs.

The state’s hospitals are requesting to increase the prices they charge commercial insurers by less than 3% next year, with the exception of Copley Hospital.

Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital in St. Johnsbury will close its occupational medicine office in October. It's the latest provider in the state to announce service closures in an effort to cut health care costs.

MVP Health Care proposed raising rates on Vermont Health Connect by just under 3%. Proposed increases from BlueCross BlueShield of Vermont are much higher — about 15% for individuals and 7% for small businesses.

While the state scrambles to cut health care costs as fast as possible, providers worry about the future of maternal health care in Vermont.

That should translate to some relief for how much individuals and employers pay for health insurance premiums.