Adding to the University of Vermont Medical Center news that it was approved for a 3.1 percent increase compared with its 10 percent submission, other hospitals including Middlebury-based Porter Hospital and the Berlin-based Central Vermont Medical Center also saw their proposed budgets struck down.
Porter Hospital proposed a 5 percent budget increase but was approved for a 3.1 percent hike, while CVMC had a 10 percent submission rebuffed with a 5 percent budget increase approved.
Overall, fiscal budgets for the 14 hospitals were approved at 4.1 percent compared with a 10.6 percent system-wide proposal.
“The hospital price increases are more than double medical inflation over the last two years,” Owen Foster, GMCB chair, said in a statement. “While we recognize the extreme costs these increases impose on Vermonters, it is important we invest in and support our hospitals.”
Vermont’s hospital budgets, which have been subject to state review since 1983, have been regulated by the Green Mountain Care Board since fiscal year 2013.
Full details on the hospital budget approvals can be found here.
