State health care regulators at the Green Mountain Care Board have cut the annual operating budget for OneCare Vermont for the second year in a row, citing ongoing questions about the effectiveness of the accountable care organization and how executives are compensated, as well as about what the organization’s future role in the state will be.
But the board’s budget review of two other accountable care organizations, or ACOs, newly operating in the state — Vytalize and Lore Health — which occurred earlier this month, drew the greatest public interest.
On Wednesday, the board unanimously approved OneCare’s overall organizational budget of $22.2 million for 2024. Prior to that, however, board members voted, 4-1, to require the accountable care organization to shift $957,000 from internal operations (out of a total of almost $14.3 million) into funding its community health or primary care support programs. Recently reappointed member Robin Lunge was the solitary ‘no’ vote.