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hosted by National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
Tues, Feb 28, 2-3pm
Complimentary Webinar
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brought to you by VNAs of Vermont
Dates include:
Mar 9, 12-1:15pm
Mar 23, 12-1:15pm
Register for the full series by clicking here.
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hosted by National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
Thurs, Mar 9, 2-3pm
Complimentary Webinar
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Mon, Mar 20, 8am-4:30pm
Hilton Hotel, Burlington
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Mar 20-21
Frederick Douglass Museum, Washington, D.C.
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brought to you by VNAs of Vermont
Wed, Mar 22, 11:30am-1pm
Register by clicking here.
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brought to you by VNAs of Vermont
Thu, Mar 23, 11:30am-1pm
Register by clicking here.
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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE
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Each year on Town Meeting Day, voters across Vermont allocate funding to help ensure that everyone has access to the home health and hospice care they need. It used to be that towns hired Town Nurses to provide care at home to residents. With support from the cities and towns we serve, VNAs took on that role and today VNAs care for children, adults, seniors, and families, helping keep people where they most want to be - at home,
regardless of their ability to pay. These allocations and the generous donations of individuals in each community are critical to making that possible. Help make sure everyone has access to the dedicated and highly skilled expert staff of nurses, therapists, social workers, licensed nursing assistants, care attendants and hospice volunteers of Vermont's VNAs.
Vote on Town Meeting Day.
If you will be out of town, or are unable to go to the polls, you can request an absentee ballot from your town or city clerk. Register to vote and request your absentee ballot before the end of February to make sure your vote counts!
Click here for more information from the Secretary of State.
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Last week
saw the introduction of
H.386
, a bill that will be the focus of our attention for the remainder of the session.
The bill adjusts the formula for the so-called "provider tax" that each VNA pays to the Department of Vermont Health Access
,
implements an annual inflationary Medicaid payment increase for VNAs
,
and freezes the amount of tax collected from VNAs at
state fiscal year
2017 levels. The VNAs of Vermont
strongly
support the bill. Vermont collects provider taxes because under federal law, those dollars are eligible
for
a federal match. Each dollar collected in tax draws down about a dollar from the federal government.
The home health agency provider tax was implemented more than a decade ago with the promise that the federal match would help fund Medicaid rate increases. Unfortunately, that has not been the case. In recent years, the tax has gone mostly to fund "caseload" increases as more and more Vermonters are covered by Medicaid.
Medicaid doesn't pay for the cost of care
,
so the program puts tremendous financial pressure on VNAs. The bill was initially assigned to the House Health Care Committee but was subsequently moved to the House Ways and Means Committee, which is in charge of tax issues.
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Click 
