Day: April 5, 2016

For the second year in a row the Guidance Office at Winooski High School (WHS) has reached out to the Roundtable to partner with them on their school-wide Aspiration Day. For these students, many of whom are first generation Vermonters or whose parents are new Americans, the idea of migrating from formal school into the workforce is daunting, and school demographics point to additional reasons why it is important for business to have more direct engagement with students.

Winooski is more ethnically diverse than other high schools in Vermont (49% v. 8%); almost 60% of students are eligible for free or reduced lunch; their students score in the bottom 10% of high schools for reading and math proficiency; and the graduation rate of 52% is well below the statewide average graduate rate of close to 90%.

Special thanks to Roundtable members Michael Lash, President and CEO of Ethan Allen Home Interiors, Michael Seaver, Vermont President, People’s United Bank, and Pierre LeBlanc, President, Engeleberth Construction, who took the time to engage in a meaningful way with students who desire to know what it takes to communicate to the business world, how to overcome racial and gender biases, and why it’s important to get as much education as you can.

Want to make a difference in the life of a child? Don’t wait to be invited, just step up in your own community.

In what is becoming a semi-annual event, Chair Al Gobeille met with members of the Roundtable’s Health Care Working Group, chaired by Mike Walsh, to provide an update on progress of the All Payer Model term sheet currently being negotiated with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The term sheet describes the basic policy framework that would allow Vermont’s health care providers, payers, and the government to operate an all-payer model. And this framework would ultimately provide an approach to health care payments that reward the health care system for providing high value care and benefit Vermonters.

At its essence the state agrees to coordinate Medicaid and commercial insurers, and commits to financial targets and quality goals, in exchange for which the federal government will allow Medicare to participate in the Vermont system. Gobeille noted that the proposal aims to make health care more affordable by bringing health care spending closer to economic growth; the term sheet sets a 3.5% spending target and a 4.3% spending cap, with a commitment that Medicare will grow more slowly in Vermont than nationally. The financial targets are based on health care services in Vermont’s Medicare, commercial and Medicaid ”shared savings” program today, which covers most hospital and physician services.

Vermont aims to improve quality of care by increasing access to primary care, reducing the prevalence of chronic disease, and addressing the substance abuse crisis. And by working with existing mental health, substance abuse and long-term services and support providers, Vermont will have created an integrated health care system. Al Gobeille and the GMCB, as charged by Act 48, will hold the Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) financially accountable for quality measures.

At the request of the Government Restructuring and Operation Review Committee, President Lisa Ventriss presented a series of remarks which sought to address its charge to “identify opportunities for increasing government efficiency and productivity, in order to reduce spending trends and related resource needs.” The GRORC is chaired by Roundtable member John Sayles.

In her remarks Ventriss referred to the findings of a 2005 effort convened by then-Governor Douglas, under the auspices of the Vermont Institute on Government Effectiveness (VIGE). That effort, chaired by the Roundtable’s Past Chair Mary Powell and executed by Roundtable member David Bradbury, ultimately recommended that the greatest opportunity for meeting Vermont’s growing resource needs were through the adoption of a contemporary technology infrastructure and enterprise-wide management model. As a member of that earlier VIGE board, Ventriss argued the recommendation is still valid today.

She also referred to similar statewide initiatives whose business roundtables were closely involved, including those of Iowa, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Washington. And Ventriss concluded her remarks by drawing a parallel with the Act 46 unification efforts by saying that any recommendations to restructure government must be more than incremental nibbling around the edges; it must demonstrate that the whole process of innovation, technology deployment and interdepartmental collaboration will accrue greater benefits to taxpayers.

The GRORC Interim Report can be found at http://legislature.vermont.gov/assets/Legislative-Reports/GRORC-Interim-Report-Final.pdf . The final report is scheduled to be delivered by November 2016 for possible action in the 2017-18 biennial session.