Here are four things to know about the potential lawsuit.
1. D-H sits on the line of New Hampshire and Vermont, serving many out-of-state patients. Compared to any facility in the Burlington-based University of Vermont system, D-H delivers more Medicaid services, according to the report. It loses $40 million annually delivering Medicaid.
2. In an August letter to the Department of Vermont Health Access, which runs the state’s Medicaid program, D-H said it has been paid 31 percent less for inpatient care than Vermont-based hospitals, with underpayments totaling $9 million, according to the report.
3. D-H’s Chief Legal Officer/General Counsel John Kacavas said D-H is “hopeful for, and open to, a negotiated disposition of this dispute, we are prepared to seek redress in court… We are confident that judicial examination of the issues raised herein will prove fatal to Vermont’s discriminatory reimbursement scheme for D-H,” according to VT Digger.
4. Lawrence Miller, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin’s chief of healthcare reform, told VT Digger the administration was refused funds last session to increase D-H’s Medicaid rates and the rates for primary care in general, according to the report.
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