![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/VTD-Bratt-hospital-7-1200x900.jpg\")
The Brattleboro Memorial Hospital campus on Belmont Avenue. Photo by Kevin O\u2019Connor\/VTDigger<\/p>\nThe Brattleboro Memorial Hospital campus on Belmont Avenue. Photo by Kevin O\u2019Connor\/VTDigger<\/p>\n
Vermont health care regulators have issued a warning, but won\u2019t intervene, as new leaders at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital work to control a projected $14.5 million annual budget shortfall<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want Brattleboro to thrive,\u201d Owen Foster, chair of the state\u2019s Green Mountain Care Board, said during a pair of review hearings that ended Wednesday. \u201cThe solution to make sure that happens is the management needs to identify the essential services for that community and it needs to come up with a plan to pay for them. It is not on the board and it is not on ratepayers to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Regulators, having questioned the accuracy of the hospital\u2019s past financial reports<\/a>, had ordered the 500-employee, 61-bed facility \u2014 the main health care provider for about 55,000 people in southeastern Vermont \u2014 to recalculate its current budget or risk becoming the first to receive state intervention under a new law<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n READ MORE<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\tby Kevin O’Connor<\/a> At the end of hearings Wednesday, the state board declined to call for an independent observer to step in, noting the hospital had replaced its chief executive and financial officers with acting co-CEOs and budget consultants<\/a> who are searching for savings and new long-term leaders.<\/p>\n Regulators stressed it wasn\u2019t their role to bail out failing facilities and warned Vermont\u2019s 13 other nonprofit hospitals not to follow Brattleboro\u2019s recent example.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to have solvency issues at our hospitals,\u201d Foster said. \u201cIf a hospital submits inaccurate and incomplete data, I don\u2019t know that we should be giving rate increases at all. It\u2019s just a bad precedent to set.\u201d<\/p>\n The Brattleboro hospital has reported a string of annual losses since 2021 and entered a state review hearing this past August with fears of another shortfall. But the institution nonetheless unveiled a proposed 2026 fiscal year budget at the summer hearing that estimated $121 million in spending and a $244,529 surplus as of next Sept. 30.<\/p>\n In response, the state expressed fears the hospital \u201chas not accurately or completely answered many questions\u201d and \u201cmay be at risk of a sudden solvency crisis,\u201d regulators wrote in an Oct. 1 decision<\/a>.<\/p>\n Shortly after, the hospital announced CEO Christopher Dougherty was taking an unexplained leave of absence<\/a> in October before he exited permanently<\/a> without comment in November. A month later, CFO Laura Bruno departed<\/a> in a similar manner.<\/p>\n The hospital \u2014 one of Brattleboro\u2019s three largest employers \u2014 is now headed by two acting co-CEOs: orthopaedic surgeon Elizabeth McLarney and primary care physician Tony Blofson.<\/p>\n \u201cWe acknowledge that it\u2019s very serious to have a $14.5 million deficit,\u201d Blofson said at Wednesday\u2019s hearing. \u201cThe goal is to keep the doors open for high-quality and local health care.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDecember 15, 2025, 9:55 amDecember 15, 2025, 11:41 am\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n