Senate committee reviews S.126 plan to curb hospital costs, expand primary care and create unified medical records

Senate Health and Welfare members spent their April 8 meeting examining S.126, a wide‑ranging health‑care reform bill that seeks to address rising insurance premiums and struggling hospital finances by expanding financial reporting to the Green Mountain Care Board, piloting global hospital budgets and promoting unified medical records.

Stacy, reporter of the bill, told committee members that the measure grew from the 2022 Act 167 process and subsequent analysis, including an Oliver Wyman review. “We can't afford to keep doing that,” Stacy said of recurring subsidies to hospitals, adding the bill focuses on three areas: hospital budgeting and financial sustainability, a state health‑care action plan and a unified medical‑records data space.

The bill’s nut graf: committee members and witnesses said Vermont faces simultaneous pressures — high per‑capita prices at some hospitals, insurers under financial strain, and gaps in primary‑care access — and that S.126 attempts to create tools for statewide planning and payment reform…