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Sunil Eappen is now 0-2.
by Ted Cohen
The ousted chief of Vermont’s largest hospital is now two strikes away from a final out trying to run health-care companies.
The question is what’s Sunil Eappen MD’s problem?
And will he try for a third swing? Or just retire?
Dr. Eappen by all accounts was a highly successful anesthesiologist in the Boston hospital system before he tried his hand at actually running a hospital.
Yet he’s effectively failed not just once but twice now in that endeavor.
Eappen was briefly acting president of Brigham & Women’s, a massive hopital operation in Boston, before he lost the permanent position to somebody else.
His next stop was the University of Vermont, which hired him – on the run? – in 2022 to run the state’s largest health network.
But now just a short three years later, he’s out.
Eappen and his bosses put out a canned statement saying they had “mutually decided” that he was going, going gone.
Whether he was actually fired is a distinction without a difference.
Eappen never really got it.
And the state panel that oversees hospital budgets has been extremely unhappy with his job performance.
Eappen’s ouster comes just weeks after the chairman of the Green Mountain Care Board excoriated the hospital for alleged grossly inept management.
There’s one other thing about Eappen’s history that can’t be ignored.
Just eight months ago during a meeting of a legislative committee Eappen either lied about or “misstated” his salary.
Early in February, state Rep. Daisy Berbeco, D-Winooski, grilled the embattled hospital chief about how much he makes.
After Berbeco asked the question, Eappen repeated it, saying “is that what you want to know?”
Yeah doctor, you heard the question. That’s exactly what she wanted to know.
Eappen dragged out the answer for as long as he could, finally giving an answer – and a false one at that – to how much his most recent raise was.
He told the lawmaker that his last bonus was $400,000.
The only problem with that answer was it wasn’t true.
To make matters worse, hospital officials later had to do clean up in Aisle 11.
They put out a statement claiming that Eappen had “misstated” his bonus – that it was actually nearly $600,000.
In an email to the Health Care Committee a week after the legislative hearing, UVM Health Network “clarified” the information that Eappen had given the committee.
His bonus was $596,073, added to his salary of $1,354,712 to bring his total compensation last year to $1,950,785.
Eappen “misspoke in committee and gave the net amount after-taxes of roughly $400,000 rather than the gross amount closer to $600,000,” the email stated.
Sure, doctor, like any of us believes you didn’t realize you fudged the truth, shall we say, by pretending you thought she meant after taxes.
Sunil Eappen has two strikes against him running hospitals. He’s two for two – but on the negative side.
Now the question is will he try a third time somewhere else?
The author is a Burlington resident and retired full-time newspaper journalist.
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Categories: Commentary, Health Care
Could you pass me a fifteen dollar each Tylenol extra strength caplet as I have a big headache after reading the story. Comment from Richard Day.
Speaking of Tylenol – remember the tampering incident back in 1982? Johnson & Johnson lost 25% net income – cost them $100 Million to address the issue. By December of 1982, the stock rebounded to a record high.
Who stands to benefit? Whoever shorted the stock made a bundle – wonder what deals were made before the big reveal?
“Operation Warp Speed: In 2020, Johnson & Johnson was one of the pharmaceutical companies that partnered with the U.S. government on Operation Warp Speed, a public-private initiative to speed up vaccine production.
Johnson & Johnson received over $1 billion in federal funds for the research and development of its vaccine candidate through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), a part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). At a December 2020 Operation Warp Speed summit, Trump mentioned Johnson & Johnson as one of the “great, great companies” working on a vaccine, noting the potential benefit of its single-dose shot.”
March 2025: “Today, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) (the “Company”), healthcare’s leading, most comprehensive innovation powerhouse, announced manufacturing, research and development, and technology investments of more than $55 billion in the United States over the next four years. This represents a 25% increase in investment compared to the previous four years and builds upon the Company’s already elevated U.S. investment levels resulting from the passage of the 2017 Tax Cuts & Jobs Act. “
Classic example of the “Peter Principle”.
If you want to look at why health care cost have spiraled out of control you need not look any further than his compensation. Multiply this by every medical institution in the country( along with senior staffing) in these supposed non profits you have only touched the tip of the iceberg of this crisis.
I do not wish to simplify this issue by only this avenue but, as we are all aware, there are others. This avenue of spiraling costs has been unfortunately compounded by the usurious compensation along with level of competency demonstrated.
Who signed the bonus checks? Who is responsible for the books or the cooking thereof? A non-profit? Who is responsible for the budget oversight/approvals?
Don’t forget, 2022 was the wave height of Convid-19 reimbursements and $1.25 billion granted to Vermont under the Affordable Care Act. ($31 Million allocated to schools?) Three years later, all the money spent – hospitals and schools are in shambles and broke – as are many who were not broke then, but are now. Gee, I wonder why?
Again COVID grant continuations is at the heart of Chuck Schumer’s demand currently, shipping a Trillion more to un Affordable Healthcare Act scams
Remember, drug addition is a medical problem and big pharma is laughing all the way to the bank. TEL. LIE. VISION. likes running big pharma ads and they will never tell you the truth as they are all bought and paid for. The ones that are not broke are the ones that took the COVID KILL SHOT as they are now dead. Comment from Richard Day.
We need neither wealthy people, nor Indian haters.