Is VT OneCare Saving The State Money? State Auditor Says “No”

Seven Days posted a story recently about State Auditor Doug Hoffer releasing a new report that found VT OneCare is costing state taxpayers more to administer than it is actually saving them.

From the post:

Vermont’s Auditor is again taking aim at the steep costs of the state’s all-payer health care system, raising thorny financial questions as policymakers ponder a new five-year contract with OneCare Vermont.

“Put simply, at this time the financial costs to run the model significantly exceed any Medicaid savings attributed to it,” Hoffer writes in a 41-page report released Monday.

[Hoffer] issued a report last year that stressed the need for the Green Mountain Care Board to be clear how it would evaluate the costs and saving of OneCare, but the board has yet to establish a methodology for doing so, he wrote.“

If now is too soon, then when exactly are Vermonters entitled to call the question on whether their money-saving investments are actually going to save them money? Next year? In five years? Ten? Twenty?” Hoffer writes.

Note: VSEA members will recall that the Scott Administration unilaterally decided in February that State Employee Health Plan members were going to now be attributed to the OneCare, beginning January 2021. At the time, VSEA called for public testimony on the All-Payer Model (the ACO), prior to the State entering into 2021 ​negotiations with CMS to extend the term of the APM agreement.