Conference committee reviews S.126 provisions adding Green Mountain Care Board staff and funding, and debates global hospital budgets

At a conference committee meeting reviewing S.126, Jen McCarthy, legislative counsel, said the bill would add new reporting requirements for the Green Mountain Care Board and change language related to the future use of global hospital budgets.

The discussion centered on section 16, which would amend the Green Mountain Care Board’s annual report to require the board to include the status of its efforts on reference‑based pricing. McCarthy said the Senate draft would “end development of global hospital budgets,” while the House draft would go further and “end any considerations regarding the future use of global hospital budgets.”

Committee members also discussed staffing and funding proposed for the Green Mountain Care Board. McCarthy summarized section 17 as creating three new permanent classified positions in fiscal year 2026: a director of reference‑based pricing, a project manager for reference‑based pricing, and an operations, procurement and contractual oversight manager. She said those three positions would be in addition to three positions already in the governor’s recommended budget, for a total of six new positions; senators had previously sought eight positions.

On funding, McCarthy described section 18 as appropriating…