Blog

SFY2021 Budget Last week, VNAs of Vermont Executive Director Jill Mazza Olson testified before both the House Appropriations and House Ways and Means committees. She urged House members to support the Choices for Care program through Medicaid reimbursement and home health provider tax relief. Telehealth The…
PDGM Home health and hospice agencies across the country are about 8 weeks into the implementation of the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM), the biggest change to home health payment in the 21st century. The financial impact on Vermont home health and hospice agencies is not yet known. In March…
Our centuries-old Vermont tradition of Town Meeting Day is just days away. While this year the presidential primary is getting a lot of the attention, important local business will also be conducted on Super Tuesday.  Throughout the state, Vermonters will vote on their school and town budgets. Some…
Paid Family Leave By a single vote, the House failed to override Governor Phil Scott’s veto of the paid family leave bill. The Administration is promoting the voluntary expansion of a new state employees' paid leave program. Telemedicine The House Health Care Committee heard overwhelming support from…
Recently, I was honored to sit on a panel with other health care leaders to discuss early successes with Vermont’s all-payer model. Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, a national health care reform expert currently teaching and practicing at Johns Hopkins University, moderated the panel and put Vermont’s experience…
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) recently recommended a 7 percent cut to the FY2021 base home health Medicare rate. The Commission also recommended eliminating a scheduled update to the FY2021 base payment rates for hospice. MedPAC also recommended an overhaul of the hospice cap, a complex…
Paid Family Leave House and Senate conferees reached an agreement last week on H. 107, the paid family leave bill. The House approved the compromise with an 89-58 vote. The final bill imposes a 0.2 percent payroll tax to fund the program. A handful of legislators opposed the bill because it didn’t go…
This week, a conference committee reached a long-awaited compromise on S.23, the minimum wage bill. On Friday, the House approved the compromise by a vote of 93-54. The agreement is expected to pass the Senate this week. Under the agreement, minimum wage would increase to $11.75 on January 1, 2021 and…
The 2020 Legislative season begins. The legislative session got off to a fast start last week. The minimum wage bill (S.23) and the paid family leave bill (H.107) were left unresolved at the end of the last session. Because 2020 is the second year of the biennium, legislators procedurally pick up where…
The 2020 legislative session is fast approaching. It will be the second year of a two-year biennium which means any bill that had not yet passed at the end of the 2019 legislative session picks up where it left off. Controversial bills often require a full two-year biennium to make it through the entire…
SFY2021 Budget Last week, VNAs of Vermont Executive Director Jill Mazza Olson testified before both the House Appropriations and House Ways and Means committees. She urged House members to support the Choices for Care program through Medicaid reimbursement and home health provider tax relief. Telehealth The…
PDGM Home health and hospice agencies across the country are about 8 weeks into the implementation of the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM), the biggest change to home health payment in the 21st century. The financial impact on Vermont home health and hospice agencies is not yet known. In March…
Our centuries-old Vermont tradition of Town Meeting Day is just days away. While this year the presidential primary is getting a lot of the attention, important local business will also be conducted on Super Tuesday.  Throughout the state, Vermonters will vote on their school and town budgets. Some…
Paid Family Leave By a single vote, the House failed to override Governor Phil Scott’s veto of the paid family leave bill. The Administration is promoting the voluntary expansion of a new state employees' paid leave program. Telemedicine The House Health Care Committee heard overwhelming support from…
Recently, I was honored to sit on a panel with other health care leaders to discuss early successes with Vermont’s all-payer model. Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, a national health care reform expert currently teaching and practicing at Johns Hopkins University, moderated the panel and put Vermont’s experience…
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) recently recommended a 7 percent cut to the FY2021 base home health Medicare rate. The Commission also recommended eliminating a scheduled update to the FY2021 base payment rates for hospice. MedPAC also recommended an overhaul of the hospice cap, a complex…
Paid Family Leave House and Senate conferees reached an agreement last week on H. 107, the paid family leave bill. The House approved the compromise with an 89-58 vote. The final bill imposes a 0.2 percent payroll tax to fund the program. A handful of legislators opposed the bill because it didn’t go…
This week, a conference committee reached a long-awaited compromise on S.23, the minimum wage bill. On Friday, the House approved the compromise by a vote of 93-54. The agreement is expected to pass the Senate this week. Under the agreement, minimum wage would increase to $11.75 on January 1, 2021 and…
The 2020 Legislative season begins. The legislative session got off to a fast start last week. The minimum wage bill (S.23) and the paid family leave bill (H.107) were left unresolved at the end of the last session. Because 2020 is the second year of the biennium, legislators procedurally pick up where…
The 2020 legislative session is fast approaching. It will be the second year of a two-year biennium which means any bill that had not yet passed at the end of the 2019 legislative session picks up where it left off. Controversial bills often require a full two-year biennium to make it through the entire…
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