Hospitals push back against report calling Vt. health care shakeup
WCAX
Reaction on Thursday to a mammoth report calling for a huge shakeup in Vermont health care, including closing or repurposing some smaller hospitals.
State leaders say it may be the only way to save rural facilities that are bleeding cash. But some hospitals are pushing back.
It’s a challenge faced by many communities across Vermont-- the cost of delivering health care in a rural setting. In Randolph, the local hospital has been losing money for years, sparking soul-searching in the community.
Eric Wallman has spent the better part of four decades working under engine bays, in wheel wells and under cars in Randolph.
“Forty years here working on cement, both knees are toast, feet hurt day after day,” Wallman said.
He’s struggled to have a total knee replacement covered by insurance as premiums have skyrocketed. So, he’s been receiving interim treatments at Gifford Medical Center, the hospital in town.
“They’ve gone above and beyond to try to help me by giving me cortisone shots and I need knee replacements in the end result, but I’m trying to buy myself a little bit of time,” Wallman said.
But access to those treatments at Gifford could be scaled back if the state follows the recommendations of a new report aimed at stemming financial losses at the state’s small rural hospitals.