By John McClaughry
Here’s a news item of interest. Anya Rader Wallack will be the new president of OneCare, the Accountable Care Organization that hopes to control as much health care in Vermont as possible.
Anya Rader Wallack was the chief architect and promoter of Gov. Peter Shumlin’s single payer plan from 2011 to 2013, before fleeing the state when it couldn’t be made to work. It collapsed in ruins in December 2014. Last June she reappeared with a PhD in “social policy”, as chief promoter of what I call the Brumsted Health Empire at UVM, which for all practical purposes owns OneCare.
She was quoted then as saying sanctimoniously, “I believe the American health care system is in crisis and can only be fixed by people who have a clear vision for reform and are in a position to improve it. I have dedicated my professional life to improving our health care system and keeping it affordable.”
In view of her previous performance peddling Gov. Shumlin’s failed single payer plan, you have to wonder how she could hand out this pomposity with a straight face, but such people are often capable of enormous acts of self-glorification.
Now, after nine months of grooming at the UVM Health Network, with a salary of $400,000 a year, Rader Wallack will take over the top job protecting UVM’s interests at OneCare. I wonder how much she’ll be getting from the taxpayers. For reference, Gov. Scott earns $184,100.
The ever vigilant Bill Schubart tells me that Rader Wallack will be the Chair, not the President , of OneCare. I’m trying to learn whether she will be Chair while still drawing $400k a year from UVM Health Network, or if not, what she’ll be paid to be Chair of One Care. For reference, Gov. Scott earns $184,.000
This type of stuff will only stop when the deplorables show up at the state house with pitchforks and torches.
Ms. Rader Wallack fails upward from the Shumlin administration health care debacle and joins Shumlin health care alum Al Gobeille at UVM Health Network.
Al Gobeille was hired by Gov. Shumlin in 2013 to Chair the Green Mountain Care Board…..At that time, he ran a restaurant operation in Burlington and had no hospital operational or administrative experience…….None…….He was next hired by Gov. Scott to head the Vermont Agency of Health Services and then in 2019 he was hired by the UVM Health Network. Still with no hospital ops or admin experience…….None…… He was hired by UVM Health Network as an Executive Vice President for Network Hospital Operations making him one of the highest ranking officers in the company.
Since or perhaps before Gobeille’s joining the UVM Health Network as head of Network Hospital Operations the company has experienced significant problems…..Rising costs, requests for large rate increases, staff shortages, inability to attract and hire needed staff, long wait times, medical residents and interns forming unions and the problems go on and on.
One has to wonder if hiring executives out of the failed Shumlin health care debacle with no actual hospital operational or administrative experience is a good or even prudent idea. Is it good for Vermont’s health care system and Vermonters who need timely and affordable heal care?