The Health & Welfare Committee said at its meeting that it will focus coming sessions on oversight of hospital transformation work tied to Act 167 and will hear from Tony Foster and Jenny Samuelson.

Committee Chair said the committee will “mostly [be] listening to Tony Foster and Jenny Samuelson about where we are” with the work tied to Act 167 and emphasized that the statutory report contains recommendations rather than mandates. “The recommendations are recommendations. There's nothing there that's mandated,” the chair said.

Members and staff discussed logistics for upcoming hearings and document access. The committee plans one-on-one meetings, will invite the health care advocate, counsel, and other witnesses, and asked staff member Kiki to link meeting materials and handouts to the committee’s shared group page. The chair noted a recent Health Reform Oversight Committee meeting (Dec. 6) is available on YouTube and that handouts from that meeting will be distributed to committee members.

Discussion focused on how Act 167 aims to coordinate hospital and community services across the state and how that long-term work intersects with short-term budget pressures. The chair said past budget actions affected services: when the University of Vermont’s last budget was finalized, “it closed a lot of services” though the meeting did not list which services were cut. Committee members said understanding the budget mechanics will be necessary to judge whether short-term closures represent permanent losses.

Members also discussed a recent external report commissioned by Gifford Health Care that committee attendees described as “very inadequate.” The committee said Gifford’s board elected not to adopt most changes suggested by the hired consultants, altering only two small programs (the chiropractic program and one other small program, as stated in the meeting). A representative identified only as the CEO of Gifford spoke at the Health Reform Oversight meeting, expressing concern about outside control of regional hospitals; that remark was discussed but not attributed to a named official in the committee meeting record.

Committee members stressed practical steps for future meetings: circulate updated agendas (electronic and printed copies on request), maintain a glossary of acronyms (members said existing glossaries are outdated), and encourage questions from members and witnesses. “There are so many acronyms in here that it is mind boggling. Don’t be scared to just say, ‘what does that stand for?’ ” the chair said.

No formal votes or motions on Act 167 or hospital policy were taken during this meeting. The committee repeatedly framed the next steps as fact-finding and oversight: review the Act 167 recommendations, listen to testimony from identified witnesses, obtain related documents, and prepare to identify bills and short-term budget issues that could lead to legislation.

The committee ended by scheduling document distribution and preparatory one-on-one sessions ahead of planned witness testimony.