BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – The University of Vermont Medical Center is spending up to $15 million to improve access, affordability and quality of care. The order comes after regulators found the hospital made $80 million of unbudgeted patient revenue in 2023. <\/p>\n
The Green Mountain Care Board said the $80 million of unbudgeted patient revenue resulted in higher premiums for Vermonters in 2023.<\/p>\n
In April 2025, they brought in professional \u201cfixer\u201d and former Vermont Agency of Human Services Secretary Mike Smith to oversee the hospital management\u2019s work in an effort to bring down the cost of health care at Vermont\u2019s largest hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cBottom line, they need to be more affordable. They need to bring down the cost of care in their organization. It\u2019s as simple as that,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n
Smith was previously hired to fix Vermont\u2019s State University system and by Fairpoint Communications, which was facing bankruptcy. Now, he\u2019s trying to mend the trust between Vermont and its largest hospital. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey have a role to play here, and it\u2019s a role that, you know, is bigger than just running an institution. They must meet the needs of Vermonters out there,\u201d said Smith. <\/p>\n
Studies show Vermonters spend more of their income on health insurance than residents of any other state.<\/p>\n
UVMMC President Dr. Stephen Leffler believes it\u2019s because of the state\u2019s older population. Low-income and senior Vermonters use state-sponsored health care, which reimburses care at lower rates. The hospital, in turn, makes those who use commercial insurance pay the difference. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have enough people to spread that cost shift out to like in other places, which makes our premiums go up higher than other places,\u201d Leffler said.<\/p>\n
GMCB officials disagree. They say it\u2019s because the hospital\u2019s expenses are out of control. Smith has consulted UVMMC on how to cut costs. So far, they\u2019ve eliminated $8 million in administrative overhead and found savings in supplies and testing. <\/p>\n
\u201cWorking with our commercial insurer, Blue Cross Blue Shield, we cut our charges to the insurance company across the board by at least 12.3% for everything we do,\u201d Leffler said.<\/p>\n
Those new charges went into effect on Jan. 1, the same date that a new state law limited the hospital\u2019s infusion drug prices. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to figure this out right now. We\u2019re working really hard on it. There\u2019s even more change coming on top of it, so it feels like it\u2019s cascading a little bit,\u201d Leffler said. <\/p>\n
He says he doesn\u2019t know what all these changes will mean for the hospital\u2019s future finances, but he promises no service cuts are coming in 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe appreciate the great work the liaison team is doing. They\u2019ve been helpful to us,\u201d Leffler said.<\/p>\n
Smith and his team say they\u2019re now focusing on improving the hospital\u2019s quality of care. They plan to wrap up their consulting in the fall. Whether or not premiums will go down is still uncertain.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 WCAX. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – The University of Vermont Medical Center is spending up to $15 million to improve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[2372,536,54336,802,2518,134,527,2241,174895,3523,300,21524,111,43,139,69,6211,1528,174894,47405,43392],"class_list":["post-324182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-board","tag-care","tag-center","tag-costs","tag-green","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-hospital","tag-liaison","tag-medical","tag-money","tag-mountain","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-system","tag-university","tag-uvm","tag-vermont","tag-wcax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}