Vermont regulators deny hospitals' pleas for rate boost to offset inflation

Vermont regulators have rejected two hospitals' request for a 10 percent midyear rate increase to help offset inflation, the VTDigger reported April 8. 

The hospitals, University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington and Central Vermont Medical Center in Berlin, asked the Green Mountain Care board to allow them to increase rates to boost revenue and offset what they called historic inflationary pressures. 

Instead of approving the double-digit rate hikes, the board approved a rate increase of 2.5 percent for University of Vermont Medical Center and 2.7 percent for Central Vermont Medical Center, according to the report. 

UVM said that the board's decision puts its hospitals at risk. 

"The Green Mountain Care Board's decisions on midyear budget adjustment requests from the University of Vermont Medical Center and Central Vermont Medical Center, after multiple years of denying hospitals the budget increases necessary to ensure access to services and invest in facilities, have put at risk major portions of Vermont's not-for-profit, community-based health care safety net," UVM said in a news release addressing the rate decision.

UVM added that Vermont is one of two states in the nation where proposed rate hikes must be approved by the state first and that it is reviewing the effect of the state board's decision. 

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