The FY2019 budget for OneCare Vermont — a statewide Accountable Care Organization (ACO) — is requesting nearly an additional $9 million in taxpayer funds for Health Information Technology and Care Coordination support.
However, the response to our FOIA request by the Green Mountain Care Board staff attorney demonstrates that the GMCB has almost no access to the means of verifying various analytical and operational claims made by OneCare Vermont (OCV).
If the analytical apparatus employed by OCV to provide essential care coordination is systemically flawed, then it calls into question:
(i) the parameters by which the GMCB claims to effect cost savings
(ii) the criteria by which it justifies significantly increasing OCV’s budget in FY 2019.
It raises another crucial question: is the rationing of health services taking place in Vermont?
With no access to the methods by which the GMCB and Dept. of VT Health Access verify OCV’s program deliverables, how can the people of Vermont understand the basis by which the state government has provided millions in taxpayer dollars as incentives to OCV?
