VHC911 raises a red flag on UVMMC's high profits
By Emerson Lynn
In this age of political polarization, it’s more than a little odd [albeit encouraging] to find an advocacy group that includes as many Republicans as Democrats [with a couple of progressives sprinkled in] all focused on dealing with what is shaping up to be the state’s most pressing crisis: Vermont's health care costs.
The group is VHC911 - aptly named - co-chaired by former Republican Gov. Jim Douglas and Lisa Ventriss, former president of the Vermont Business Roundtable. The Board of Directors is headed up by Christopher Pearson, the former progressive state senator from Chittenden County and, a handful of others with extensive healthcare experience and widespread political alliances. [The group gives a broadened, and hopeful, definition of the word bipartisan.]
We draw attention to the group and its makeup because it’s providing information about our healthcare system that needs to be shared and to be understood. It’s a call to Vermont’s media to tell the group’s story, to explain why things have become the way they are, and to answer the questions being asked.
In VHC911’s last report, it asked a number of questions::
“Relative to 103 academic medical centers in the nation, UVMMC had the 10th highest operating profit discharge in 2023.” How does that happen and why?
Most academic centers break even or profit on Medicare patients, UVMMC loses money. Why?
In 2023 UVMMC’s commercial profits totaled $801,927,336 and their losses on Medicare, Medicaid, uninsured patients, bad debt and charity care was $228,464,317. “What happened to the leftover $573,464,019?”
“The net loss of UVM Health Network hospitals in 2023 for Medicare, Medicaid, uninsured, bad debt and charity care was $331,281,774. But when we [VHC911] overlay net income and losses with growth in the Network’s commercial profits, the results show that the loss categories cited by Network leadership were much smaller than the growth in commercial profit. In fact, the Network’s commercial insurance profits in 2023 were $913,585,976, almost three times greater than losses from the other sources combined.”
Three of the UVMMC hospitals in 2023 carried a net loss of $55,129,332 with two of those hospitals located in New York whose losses totaled $44,925,774. “That same year, UVMMC reported a $120 million net gain…The network’s three New York hospitals “had a combined net loss in 5 out of 10 years…and a cumulative net loss of $62,877,571.” How is that Vermont’s problem? What makes it go away?
UVM Health Network contends that the “primary driver of increased commercial insurance costs” can be attributed to increased patient volume. But VHC911’s research shows “that the growth in commercial profits is mostly driven by a substantial increase in profit per discharge. …Actually, volume increased at a modest 12% while the operating profits per discharge skyrocketed by 364%.”
“With UVM Health Network profits of over $2.247 Billion in the last four years, upcoming hospital budgets can and must be significantly reduced without cutting services for patients.”
…
It’s a complicated story, but bringing light to it and helping Vermonters understand how the system works and to what effect is the media’s job and it's overdue. The Green Mountain Care Board is in the process of making its case before the Legislature and has acknowledged many of the same points being raised by VHC911. The board has made it clear just how serious the crisis is.
The state’s hospitals present their budgets within the next 120 days. The legislature adjourns this month. Procrastination is not an option. We should be grateful for the selfless efforts being made by VHC911 to draw attention to the crisis. Their questions need answering.
Full editorial: https://www.samessenger.com