Members of the board of directors of the Mad River Valley Health Center, which is home to Mad River Family Practice and other health care services, are seeking concrete information from Central Vermont Medical Center about exactly how much will be saved by closing the local health care practice as well as a nearby physical therapy practice.
CVMC announced the closures this week, which are part of the network’s efforts to close a $16.2 million budget deficit related to the Green Mountain Care Board’s decision to limit the University of Vermont Medical Center’s (UVMMC) increases in patient revenue and rates for commercial insurers. UVMMC is the parent organization that includes CVMC.
Including the cuts for CMVC, UVMMC is facing $122 million in cuts.
The Valley Reporter reached out to the Mad River Valley Health Center board of directors for details about the local clinic. Board president Don Murray said that the current lease auto-renewed on October 1, 2024, and is a two-year term. CVMC rents approximately 3,300 square feet of the building and has been a tenant since 2016. Murray did not provide the amount of rent.
TOTAL COSTS
One thing that health center board members are seeking is information on specifically how much money the closure will save. The Valley Reporter reached out to CVMC media spokesperson Jay Ericson seeking details on how many patients are served at the local health care clinic as well as the physical therapy practice. Both clinics serve patients in the Mad River Valley as well as folks from Middlesex and Granville.
Ericson was also asked about total costs of operating the local health care centers including rent, utilities, supplies, insurance, and salaries. CVMC said that staff will be reassigned to other clinics, including a health care clinic in Waterbury that is 12 miles from The Valley. No response was received as of noon on November 15.
According to Pro Publica’s which tracks nonprofit costs, UVMMC’s executive compensation was $9,355,839 in 2023.
NO PUBLIC TRANSIT
Currently, there is no public transportation from The Valley to Waterbury and some Valley residents may be unable to leave their jobs for the time it takes to drive to Waterbury, see a health care provider or physical therapist and then drive back. Employers may also face workforce shortages and problems staying open when employees need to leave for 90 to 120 minutes.
The mission statement of the Mad River Valley Health Center is very specific in specifying that the facility/building will be used to provide perpetual access for a full-service health care facility – which will still be available, albeit without providers.
QUALITY FACILITY
“As an aside, per the articles of organization (as amended) the primary focus of the Mad River Valley Health Center, Inc. is “To provide a quality facility to insure the availability of local health care to residents of the Mad River Valley, neighboring communities and visitors.” The Board is not in a position to provide health care services and nor is that it’s mandate. The primary role is to maintain the facility housing those entities that provide the health care services,” Murray said.
The board is scheduled to meet early next week to discuss all our potential options. The board does intend to take whatever action we can. The question that remains to be answered is what those actions might be. We have no control over the internal decision-making process at UVMMC/CVMC and we certainly hope for a better outcome than what we are faced with currently,” he added.
LOCAL REACTION
Local reaction to the news has been quick with social media abuzz about the imminent closures. The closures are expected to occur next spring, despite the October renewal of a two-year lease for Mad River Family Practice.
A petition protesting the CVMC/UVMMC cuts has been created and is garnering signatures. Here is a link: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-the-cuts-at-uvm-health-network
UVMMC is appealing the Green Mountain Care Board denial of its proposed commercial rate increases and the Green Mountain Care Board (GMCB), in turn, has stated that it was not consulted on and did not approve the proposed reductions.
“The GMCB approved a nearly $1.9 billion budget for UVMMC for FY25, an increase of $64 million over UVMMC’s FY24 budget. As set forth in its budget order, the GMCB found that compared to other hospitals UVMMC has significant opportunity to improve its expense management and control the excessively high prices it charges commercially insured Vermonters. The GMCB also found that in FY23 UVMMC failed to properly account for government revenue and thereby requested higher than necessary commercial reimbursements from Vermonters. Accordingly, the GMCB reduced UVMMC’s high commercial prices by 1% from its FY24 approved amount,” the GMCB wrote in a press release.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
