If you’ve read my columns over the past several months, you know that we at VAHHS have committed ourselves to reducing the rising tide of violence we’re seeing in Vermont’s health care workplaces—particularly in our emergency departments. We strongly support S.36, which attempts to enact measures to support our colleagues in health care, who are increasingly subject to physical and verbal abuse as they care for us and our neighbors.
To put a human face on the problem of violence in Vermont’s health care settings, we convened a Workplace Violence Summit at the Capitol Plaza in Montpelier. There, legislators and others committed to our health care workforce confronted the issue of workplace violence. After comments and an introduction from Mari Cordes, a nurse and a representative to our legislature, we heard from three nurses who recounted stories of unimaginable violence they’ve suffered while at work. The stories were not easy to hear, but I believe sharing details of their painful experiences and asserting the extent of harm and fear we’ve allowed these dedicated health care professionals to bear is essential
to change.
Please take a few minutes to watch the video from our Workplace Violence Summit. I hope that you are moved to support S.36, now under consideration in the Vermont House, which is an important first step toward making this unacceptable violence stop.
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Devon Green, VP of Government Relations
As we head into town meeting week next week, the countdown to crossover has begun. Things are starting to move fast!
Regulatory Flexibilities: The House Health Care Committee voted out a bill that would extend certain COVID regulatory flexibilities, including health care provider licensure for an out-of-state provider in good standing at a facility when a provisional license is not available. The legislation includes a new section that requires this type of “deemed” licensure to be considered a Vermont license to address concerns that some health insurers are not accepting this form of licensure.
Budget Adjustment Act: The FY 23 Budget Adjustment Act will go to a conference committee to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions. The differences that impact hospitals include:
- The House version includes $9.25 million for and inpatient adolescent psych unit. The Senate eliminated this provision.
- The Senate version has greater flexibility for pipeline funding. The House version requires health care facilities to provide assistance with living costs.
Mental Health: There was a lot happening with mental health this week.
- The Department of Mental Health presented their FY 2024 budget initiatives to the House Health Care Committee:
- ED Alternatives: $1.6 million for an urgent mental health crisis center run by Northeast Kingdom Human Services for individuals in mental health crisis. The Northeast Kingdom currently has very few mental health resources.
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Mobile Crisis Expansion: Proposal to use $422,812 to continue to expand the mobile crisis program.
- Peer Credentialing: $375,000 to establish screening, training, and credentialing for peers with an estimated 60 individuals trained in the first year.
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Forensic Facility Legislation: The Department of Mental Health presented on S.89 and its proposal for 9 forensic beds as residential outpatient care for those involved in the criminal justice system and for those who have a considerable amount of risk for violence. The plan is to use 9 existing beds in the Vermont Psychiatric Care Hospital for this population.
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Fixing the health care worker shortage may be something Congress can agree on |
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Vermont Public
Senators are eying the growing shortage of health care workers in the United States as one of the few problems where there is room for bipartisan solutions, even in a deeply divided Congress gearing up for a presidential election cycle.
The shortage that's only worsened since the pandemic is a prescription for skyrocketing costs, suffering, and unnecessary death, warned Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who is the new chairman of the Senate's top health committee. He spoke in his committee's first hearing last week.
"We are going to produce legislation, and I think people will be surprised about the level of bipartisan supporters," Sanders said in a brief interview during a break from the hearing. He called for the committee to "produce something meaningful."
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UnitedHealthcare terminating commercial insurance contract with UVMHN April 1 |
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VBM
Since last year, The University of Vermont Health Network has worked to reach a new agreement on behalf of patients who receive commercial insurance through UnitedHealthcare. Despite many attempts to preserve patient access to care, United, one of the nation’s largest for-profit insurers, has decided to allow that contract to expire as of April 1, 2023, in line with state requirements that may lead to some coverage in New York being extended through June 1.
“This will have a serious impact on our patients who subscribe to UnitedHealthcare’s commercial insurance, and we are disappointed they have made this decision rather than attempt to come closer to payment rates approved by the Green Mountain Care Board that more accurately reflect the cost of providing health care in 2023 and align with rate increases negotiated with other Vermont payers,” said Sunny Eappen, MD, MBA, President and Chief Executive Officer of The UVM Health Network. “Our obligation is to our patients, families, staff and communities, not to UnitedHealthcare shareholders, and we will continue working hard to provide high-quality patient care while remaining one of the lowest cost health systems in the country, and doing our best to support patients who will be impacted by this decision.”
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Regulators may get more flexible on UVMMC mental health care investment |
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VTDigger
On its face, the question the Green Mountain Care Board will decide over the coming two weeks is bureaucratic. But to Vermonters struggling to access mental health treatment for themselves or loved ones, the answer is anything but mundane.
Should the board allow Burlington’s University of Vermont Medical Center to divert what remains of $21 million in surplus health care revenue from 2017 away from a plan to construct a new hospital-based inpatient psychiatric facility?
The alternative would be a wider range of investments to increase mental health care capacity determined in conjunction with the Vermont Department of Mental Health. The board is seeking public comment on the question in advance of a possible March 8 vote.
The care board’s staff recommend loosening the board’s requirements.
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Man arrested for threatening Rutland Regional Medical Center, sending obscene emails |
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Newport Dispatch
A 46-year-old man from Sudbury was arrested following an incident in Rutland on Thursday.
Authorities say they were notified by the General Counsel of the Rutland Regional Medical Center that their staff was receiving an abundance of unwanted and threatening emails and voice mails from Jay G. Cooke.
Approximately 12 emails were sent by Cooke and received by RRMC staff within a 13-hour window on Wednesday.
Police say the content of these emails was obscene, lewd, lascivious, and indecent.
It appeared that Cooke maliciously threatened to accuse another of a crime with intent to extort money from the RRMC.
He was transported to the Vermont Superior Court to be arraigned on the charges of extortion, disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace by use of telephone or other electronic communications, and criminal threatening.
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Primary care providers get advice hotline for supporting youth mental health care |
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VTDigger
On any given day, Alexandra Bannach, a pediatrician in Newport, will have three or four patients scheduled to see her for a check-in about ongoing mental health treatment, most commonly for depression or anxiety. That’s true of her three colleagues as well.
Meanwhile, about half of the annual visits with teens and pre-teens throughout the rest of her work day reveal symptoms that might result in a mental health diagnosis. The number of those cases and their severity has increased dramatically in the past half decade, she said. That led her practice team to decide last year to extend the amount of time they take with each adolescent patient.
“We just needed more time in those rooms,” said Bannach, who has worked at North Country Pediatrics for 18 years. “It’s not just doing a physical (exam) anymore and saying, ‘you’re cleared for sports.’ You have to address mental health issues and with those, obviously, there’s no blood tests. It’s really sitting down and talking.”
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