The People Who Make Vermont Health Care Work

In just two days, the VAHHS 2019 Annual Meeting—Healthy Vermont Together: People, Passion, Promise--will kick off. Thanks to those of you who will be joining us! We are excited for what we think is a solid lineup of speakers, workshops and panel discussions.

As you may know, Vermont recently received news through two reports issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that our approach to health care reform is working. We were proud to learn that Vermont had the most promising results in reducing high-cost service use. We were the only state to demonstrate slower growth in Medicaid expenditures (saving $97 million) and the only state to achieve significant coordination across payers. Emergency department visits and inpatient admission to the hospital are down and access to early childhood developmental screenings is up. The all-payer model is showing promise.

We know what’s making our system work—or more importantly, who’s making it work.

It’s our people—the thousands of Vermonters who go to work each day at our hospitals,  our mental health centers, our home health agencies, primary care practices and more. With creativity, compassion and dignity, they put patient-centered care first, focusing on wellness as much as illness, caring for the people they serve and caring about the people they serve. It will be our people who will allow us to sustain the unique Vermont health care system that is already showing so much promise. That’s why we decided to focus this year’s Annual Meeting on all of them—and all of you.

We appreciate what each and every one of you brings to health care in our state and what you will bring to our annual gathering. We know we will all learn from each other during the days we spend together.

If you have not yet registered for the event, there’s still time.  Hope to see you.