Lawmakers mull holding hearing on hospital profits

Top lawmakers are considering whether to hold a formal discussion on the growing profit margins at Vermont hospitals.

The move comes in the wake of a VTDigger investigation showing that, despite regulation to control health care costs, hospitals tripled their profits and doubled their assets over the past 10 years.

Rep. David Sharpe, D-Bristol, the chair of the House Education Committee, was the first to raise questions about hospital profits at a meeting of the Joint Fiscal Committee on July 25. He said the data in the VTDigger investigation concerned him.

Sharpe said in an interview that insurance companies, the state’s Medicaid program and the Green Mountain Care Board may not have “demonstrated the ability to control costs in our health care system, and as a legislator that concerns me.”

Read more: http://vtdigger.org/2016/08/02/lawmakers-mull-holding-hearing-on-hospital-profits/