BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Vermont’s rural hospitals are in danger of closing. That’s according to the controversial report issued by consulting group Oliver Wyman.
Some of those hospitals are banding together, saving themselves from closure and saving you money in the meantime.
A key recommendation from the Act 167 Report is to: “reduce costs through synergies… because Individual hospitals could benefit from shared services/staff.” The report believes the hospital system could save millions in the process. As I found out, THe New England Health Collaborative is already doing that.
The New England Health Collaborative is made up of Copley Hospital, Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, Cottage Hospital, Northwestern Medical Center, and Adirondack Health.
Through the Collaborative, hospitals can negotiate purchasing supplies and employee benefit plans together, and share staff and strategies. It’s a third option between operating independently, but not as a system like UVM Health Network. They say in the first year of the Collaborative they saved $5 million.
“That’s money that we can either put back into our mission or keep our rates lower,” said Peter Wright from The New England Health Collaborative.
One critic we spoke to says Vermont’s health care system is failing and that piecemeal solutions are just delaying what Manny Mansbach from the Vermont Workers Center says is inevitable: a universal publicly funded health care system.
“It’s not going to help the average Vermonter, make health care more affordable, or accessible. So they keep coming up with these finance schemes that really have to do with the high finance, but don’t really address what the health care consumer needs,” said Manny Mansbach from Vermont Workers Center.
For The New England Health Collaborative, coming together isn’t necessarily about changing the system. The move for them is one so they can all just stay afloat.
“These healthcare families are trying to figure out a way to survive and stay close together so they can better serve the people who come looking to them for care,” said Chip Holmes from The New England Health Collaborative.
The New England Health Collaborative tells me that they’re open to more hospitals joining in.