Tue, 02/02/2021 - 6:56am tim
by Devon Green VAHHS Vice President of Governmental Relations Legislators! They’re just like us! And, just like us, they are deeply tired of saying things like “you’re on mute” over Zoom. We all continue to struggle with the extra steps it takes to do things from a distance, so it comes as a relief that the Governor’s budget address last Tuesday set the agenda for the session as spending the infusion of one-time federal funding to the state, increasing its revenues to $116 million as opposed to the agonizing cuts we were all anticipating a few months ago.
Tue, 01/26/2021 - 5:20am tim
by Jeff Tieman, VAHHS President and CEO However long it may seem, it was only 10 months ago that our state went into a state of emergency to protect Vermonters from a new, scary and highly contagious virus. At the onset of COVID-19, it felt like we were driving through a furious snowstorm and our windshield wipers failed. Visibility was limited and the road was winding, unknown and potentially very dangerous.
Every week since has been a challenge, and this one will be no exception. The difference is now our windshield wipers are working and we can see both the road and the destination, which is a vaccinated Vermont. In fact, according to a leading COVID-19 data scientist, Youyang Gu, Vermont is the first state to vaccinate more people against COVID-19 (6%) than were infected with the virus (4.4%).
5 Things Oregon: Health policy preview, Committee membership, Vaccine rollout DJ Wilson | Jan 14, 2021
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If you understand the unique character of our republican democracy, you can find calm in this anxious time. In six days, Joe Biden will be inaugurated President of the United States. He may not have been your candidate. That disappointment is a luxury of being in a democracy.
The orderly transfer of power from one administration to another is something unique to the last few hundred years among almost the entire swath of human history. It transpires again next Wednesday. I would encourage you to watch and appreciate the moment at 12:00 pm EST on January 20th, remember how unique our American experiment in self-government is. And, how fragile.
Panel recommends steps by Oregon lawmakers to rein in rising health care costs
SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) A committee led by policy experts, citizens and stakeholders took steps Tuesday that they say will help put Oregon on a path to keep health care costs in check.
The Implementation Committee for Oregon’s Sustainable Health Care Cost Growth Target Program adopted recommendations to the Legislature to inform actionable strategies to make it easier to understand what is driving up costs and how to address this problem.
The Committee envisions a process to ensure that health care costs are contained in the public and private sector with accountability mechanisms for health care entities. Oregon is only the second state in the nation to pass health care cost growth target legislation and the fourth to adopt such a program.
North Dakota to consider drug price transparency bill
If approved, the bill would require manufacturers to report the list price of the drugs they provide in North Dakota to the state four times each year. 6:13 pm, Jan. 7, 2021 ×
BISMARCK In an effort to lower the cost of prescription drugs across North Dakota, lawmakers are considering a bill that would require manufacturers to report the price of prescription drugs to the state.
The transparency bill, which was introduced to the North Dakota House Health Care Committee on Wednesday, Jan. 6, comes as drug prices nationwide are exponentially increasing. The bill, introduced by Legislative Management on behalf of the House Health Care Committee, would require drug manufacturers to report to the North Dakota Board of Pharmacy each quarter the list price of the approved drugs it sells in the state.