MONTPELIER, Vt. -
The state board overseeing hospital
spending says next year's budgets are not sustainable.
The Green Mountain Care Board set a
goal for fiscal year 2013 for the state's 14 hospitals to have a net increase
in patient revenues of 3.75 percent. But the budgets approved by the board
actually will drive up costs by 5.1 percent.
"This year was a year
we allowed for certain investments in health care reform where we expect there
will be a return on investment in a short period of time, so we allowed
hospitals and hospital systems to spend extra money where they made a case that
over a short period of time that will reap more savings you would otherwise get
in the system and we will monitor the system to the extent in which those
investments pay off," said Anya Rader Wallack of the Green Mountain Care
Board.
Wallack says there's also work to be done in
reducing the so-called cost shift. That's when Medicare and Medicaid do not
cover the full costs of care, and the burden is shifted to commercial insurance
ratepayers.
