Earlier this year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced its first set of Medicare-negotiated “maximum fair prices” for 10 selected drugs, with negotiated prices ranging from 38% to 79% below their list prices. A drug’s list price is the manufacturer’s sticker price, though it is rarely what insurers or patients actually pay and is mainly used as a starting point for negotiations.
Vermont will receive over $195 million in Rural Health Transformation Funds in 2026, which is among the highest award per capita in the nation. But not all Vermont political figures are so complementary.
First study of wildfire smoke’s effects on children with asthma in the Northeast reveals growing health risks for the region as climate change fuels more smoke-filled summers.
PBMs were created to control drug costs, but their profit-driven practices have turned them into key drivers of price inflation.
According to the Blue Cross campaign, a standard MRI scan at UVM Medical Center costs approximately $6,520 compared to $1,799 at an independent facility.
The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote as early as Tuesday on H.R. 3492, titled the Protect Children’s Innocence Act, legislation that would prohibit gender-related medical interventions for minors.
The medical journal The Lancet has just released three companion studies that vindicate this MAHA message.
While House Republicans will drop the text of a health care policy bill as soon as Monday, individual Republican senators have introduced a hodge-podge of ideas via separate bills.
And EVERYBODY is paying the price.
The Green Mountain Care Board seems to continue to prioritize standardized billing data in order to support their policy goals even after receiving the more reliable clinical reality.
Demolition of Medical Office Building D, 266 Hospital Loop Road, Berlin, will take three or four weeks and involve heavy equipment and utility work, hospitals leaders said.
The Legislature this year unanimously passed a new law that will erase up to $100 million in medical debt—with no new taxes or fees. The Governor signed it into law on May 15.
In an NPR interview on Oct. 30, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, regarded as one of the “architects” of the ACA, conceded that Obamacare has not delivered. He described the “incredibly complicated” labyrinth of the US healthcare system, admitting, “[F]rankly, the affordable care added to that complication by putting in the exchanges.”
The situation Vermonters are being warned about is not just a story of one spending bill or one vote. It is the product of a deeper policy design choice: treating a major subsidy as a temporary “emergency” measure, extending it in short increments, and allowing that structure to create a recurring policy cliff that repeatedly hangs over consumers and taxpayers.
The state partners with a nonprofit that buys medical debt from hospitals at a small fraction of the original amount.
About 30,000 residents of Vermont get their health insurance via the state’s Affordable Care Act marketplace. The Public Assets Institute reports that Vermonters would experience the most substantial premium hikes if the federal healthcare premium tax credits are not extended, given that Vermont already has the highest premiums nationwide.
The family of an Essex Junction Army veteran who took her life due to combat PTSD has started a scholarship to help women veterans receive advanced training in PTSD treatment.
On September 22, Pres. Donald Trump and Kennedy announced “bold actions to tackle the autism epidemic,” which they said has surged nearly 400% since 2000 and now affects 1 in 31 American children.
The Front Porch provides a 24/7 co-occurring program supporting individuals across the lifespan, offering a safe and welcoming alternative to emergency rooms.
The echoes of Nazi policies in the modern quest to “cure” and “eradicate” Autism.
The ousted chief of Vermont’s largest hospital is now two strikes away from a final out trying to run health-care companies.
New book reveals how lobbying drives up healthcare prices
Hospital trustees commit to reducing expenses, slowing growth of hospital costs.
New York hospitals in the UVMMC network include Champlain Valley Physicians’ Hospital in Plattsburgh, Alice Hyde Medical Center in Malone, and Elizabethtown Community Hospital.
“We are now witnessing a full blown war on science, public health, and on truth itself,” said Sanders at the joint press conference.
It would be most welcome if more people, especially healthcare providers and parents, would dig into the research on vaccine harms for the sake of our children and the future of humanity.
“Despite the overwhelming opposition of the medical community, secretary Kennedy has continued his longstanding crusade against vaccines and his advocacy of conspiracy theories that have been rejected repeatedly by scientific experts.”
Act 21 appropriates $1 million for fiscal year 2026. That money goes from the State Treasurer to a nonprofit debt buyer, which purchases old hospital accounts for pennies on the dollar and then cancels them. Patients who qualify — Vermont residents with incomes under 400 percent of the federal poverty line (FPL), or whose debt exceeds five percent of household income (with no income limit) — get letters saying their debt has been forgiven.
On Jan. 20, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing federal agencies to remove all statements that “promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology.”
The rollbacks would undo an Obama-era change, reverting regulations to those drafted in 1975. The impact would include removing overtime protections as well as the $7.25 federal minimum wage requirement for home health workers. The agency says the move would improve costs for home health care providers and stimulate growth in the struggling industry.
GMCB said it ordered insurers to “lower their assumptions about hospital price increases” as part of its order. The board also is requiring hospitals to reduce their costs.
The grant will support new equipment and technology enabling patients to see doctors and specialists through telehealth. A new law requires insurers cover telemedicine.
Despite opposition by some SNAP users claiming that the move discriminates against the marginalized (or against their food liberties), the intention of these efforts is to improve health outcomes.
Marks favored Pfizer over American children’s health.
Edwards-Leeper’s young patients informed her that they received cross-sex hormones during their first 30-minute in-person or remote consultation with Planned Parenthood.
In 2023 alone, CVPH and Alice Hyde accounted for over $44 million in losses, or more than 80% of the Network’s total hospital operating deficit that year.
Trump’s EO reframes the role of the federal government—not to ban homelessness per se, but to withdraw federal support from jurisdictions that tolerate open-air drug scenes, encampments, or noncompliance with anti-vagrancy law.
“This is a space where anyone can walk in anonymously and find support for themselves or a loved one,” said White. “There are no barriers—just tremendous statewide resources.”
The future of rural healthcare in Vermont begins with you
The latest round of job reductions is expected to save the network up to $5 million. When combined with additional cuts announced Tuesday, the total savings are projected to reach $180 million. These come on top of $150 million in cost reductions implemented earlier this year.
The state has faced an increase in cases since 2022. The last time Vermont saw a rise in rabies-positive raccoons, the primary species carrying the virus, was between 2015 and 2016.
The jury is still out as long-term studies await…
A launch of the amazing MAHA initiative, called MAHA Action, will be celebrated on July 21 at the Ned nightclub in Washington, DC.
Over the past decade, we’ve grown ever more concerned about dubious strains of social-justice advocacy infiltrating medicine. Following the death of George Floyd in 2020, doctors’ pursuit of social reform coalesced, almost overnight, into a mission.
Part 4 in 4-part series, ‘Mutilation or Healthcare?’
Part 3 in 4-part series, ‘Mutilation or Healthcare?’
This ‘healthcare’ business may be a welcome revenue stream for health clinics often struggling and seeking financial assistance. ‘Gender affirming care’ is quite possibly a golden ticket as the number of youth and young adults seeking ‘treatment’ has increased.
With coupons for testosterone, minds molded by heavily monetized influencers, a false sense of belonging and support from online chatrooms dominated by questionable facilitators, impressionable, vulnerable youth sacrifice their minds and bodies for mutilation falsely labeled as healthcare.
“A cut of this magnitude is an existential threat to home health and hospice access for Vermonters,” said the VNAs of Vermont in a statement.
The changes were sparked by a close call in April 2024, when an emergency department triage nurse encountered a patient with a four-inch switchblade.
The alleged abuse took place in April while Agasi was employed as the house manager at Our House Too, a residential care home in Rutland.
Insurer says it’s not going bankrupt, but says recovery will take time.
In fact, if (that’s a big “if”) we’re reading this study’s charts correctly, Vermont has — by far — the lowest mean level of the “Dark Factor of Personality.”
Balint calls gender reassignment treatments “necessary to keep [children] alive”
Dr. David N. Krag as executor of the estate of Peter M. Krag had sued the UVM Medical Center claiming the medical care provided by Dr. Halle G. Sobel was substandard and led to the death of the well-known local jazz musician from Shelburne five years ago.
Balint’s remark, apparently intended to underscore the urgent need for immigration reform and workforce development, drew mixed reactions—earning praise from some for its honesty and urgency, while others criticized it as crass or dismissive.
A prominent world-renowned doctor based in Burlington is suing the University of Vermont Medical Center for medical negligence and wrongful death for the fatal overdose of his adult son five years ago.
A groundbreaking ceremony will be held Saturday for Living Waters Hospice House, the first dedicated hospice residence serving Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.
The increase in deaths is only the tip of the iceberg. We are also failing in all of our health outcomes, across the board. Schools and businesses have struggled to find enough staff who are healthy and able to work, and health facilities are flooded with patients.
Conflicting reactions suggest it hit the sweet spot.
Banished by the medical establishment for resisting Covid policies, he now runs the agency that made them
In a recently released open letter to Governor Phil Scott, health educator and Vermont Stands Up director Amy Hornblass raises a stark question: why has Vermont’s Department of Health not investigated the state’s persistent surge in excess deaths since the onset of COVID-19 restrictions?
Vermonters were told passage of Article 22 would keep abortion rare, safe, and legal, yet this new law opens the floodgates to unsupervised chemical abortions, making them common and dangerous, yet still legal.
This comprehensive review prioritizes evidence-based medicine and questions the treatment of minors with irreversible medical interventions such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries.
Medical debt payment by taxpayers sets risky precedent and disincentives repayment, guv warns.
This year’s awardees are Katrina Bennett, RN for Commitment to Quality, Jennnifer Lavelle, RN for Commitment to Professional Growth, Lucy Carpenter, LPN for Commitment to Customer Service, and Bruce Muir, RN for Commitment to Community.
Proposed double-digit health care premium increases could be even larger if a current federal tax credit expires, according to a statement released by the Green Mountain Care Board, the State of Vermont’s health insurance regulator.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order yesterday (5/12) implementing a “Most Favored Nation” policy that aims to align U.S. prescription drug prices. Sen. Bernie Sanders immediately promised he would work with Trump to turn the EO into a law and challenged the president to get onboard when he introduces legislation.
The untold connection between transgenderism and Body Integrity Identity Disorder
RFK: Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease. VT Dept. of Health: When communities stop adding fluoride to their water, cavities go up.
Ex-employee claims her firing due to noting inadequate response. Jordan Houston filed the lawsuit against Washington County Mental Health Services Inc. in Vermont Superior Court in Montpelier on Friday.
A new law may help establish whether there’s a link to mass shooters and antidepressants.
Statewide advertising campaign by radio and social media to provide Vermont parents who believe their minor children may have been given medical interventions without their consent an opportunity to confer for free with legal counsel.
Fine of up to $10K if the AG thinks an ad “has a tendency to deceive or mislead.”
“So we’re looking at nearly 50% with mental health [needs]… Large numbers, one in five with a developmental disability, nearly one in three with a physical disability. And so that is the type of people that this legislation would impact.”
CON laws limit the supply of healthcare services in roughly two-thirds of the states, limiting patients’ healthcare options and preventing innovation in the industry.
“In 2024, claims were up more than 15% from the previous year as part of an unprecedented and sustained three-year cost surge,” the report states. The report does not speculate as to why there was a sudden uptick starting three years ago.
“I don’t think that those people [legislators and concerned Vermonters] know the vaccines that they got as children or maybe as adolescents, or covid shots that they got in the last few years, never tested for impact on fertility, never tested for mutagenicity, never tested for carcinogenicity, I don’t think those people know that and I think they need to know that,” Holland said.
When she was terminated, Porter was on long-term disability, but had returned to part-time work, the lawsuit said.
The Vermont Supreme Court’s determination in Hogan v. Lincoln Medical Partners says legally, they can.
Over 100 adult pigs, sheep, goats, and chickens plus 70-80 piglets were lost in the fire.
“Vermonters deserve to know what they’re buying when it comes to their health care. Too many of these plans have left people vulnerable…”
Beyond the talking points
Vermont faces $7M in federal healthcare cuts as HHS reprioritizes funding under new administration
What’s medically true would be decided by the Vermont Attorney General.
A 2023 law just muzzled pregnancy resource centers. This year’s ‘improved’ version muzzles everyone.
While hospitals cut services to stay afloat, Planned Parenthood benefits from a 90-10 Medicaid match, private donations, and millions in political spending.
The bill stems from a growing frustration among parents and educators who have witnessed firsthand the impact of prolonged mask-wearing on students.
As Vermont’s hospitals struggle financially, a bill by the House Healthcare Committee would have the state oversee financial records.
First Vermont case in 2025. School-aged child had been traveling internationally. Not related to Quebec, Texas outbreaks
The stats include 71% of UVM Medical Center’s total operational costs going to administrative work.
First-ever Vermont Detransitioners and Desisters Awareness Day at the Vermont State House next week, March 12.
Similar efforts to buy out student loans at the national level have gotten stalled in federal courts.
Each bill was given about 5-10 minutes per presenter in the marathon committee session. To see all 18 bills, look at their Feb. 21 (Friday) agenda.
Empty Arms is filling a gap in the Vermont system of care for pregnancy and infant loss, said a lawmaker who suffered a miscarriage in a State House bathroom.
The regulatory board voted to increase UVM Medical Center’s revenue cap to cover losses from operating dialysis centers in Newport, St. Albans and Rutland.
Increasing healthcare and hospital costs pose a greater challenge than education
The Senate Committee on Health & Welfare discussed a bill to advance a statewide health care delivery system on February 11
In 2011, Nicole Matten of Barton, Vermont brought her healthy, seven year old daughter Kaylynne to the doctor for a “well-check up” where she was injected with a Fluzone influenza vaccine. A few days later, her daughter died in her arms on the way to the hospital.
CDC: “While the current public health risk is low, CDC is watching the situation carefully and working with states to monitor people with animal exposures.”
