Gifford Health Care taps former Shumlin health care hand as new CEO

A former health official in the Shumlin and Scott administrations will lead Randolph-based Gifford Health Care starting in October, the nonprofit’s board of directors announced in a press release on Thursday.

Michael Costa will join the central Vermont health care provider on October 14, three days after the retirement of Gifford’s current president Dan Bennett, who began his tenure there in 2016.

Gifford Health encompasses Gifford Medical Center, a full-service hospital, as well as an independent living facility and a nursing home in Randolph, local health centers in Berlin, Bethel, Chelsea, Randolph and Rochester, and day care centers for both children and adults.

Costa, in a written statement, called Gifford “a truly unique organization” that “deeply reflects the health care needs of our community.”

The leadership role “offers an extraordinary opportunity to lead in rural health care and to model how to provide high-quality services while improving community health in a sustainable way,” he said.

Bennett called Gifford Health a “primary-care driven organization” in a hospital budget presentation to the Green Mountain Care Board earlier this month, and his presentation noted that the revenue from Gifford Medical Center, its hospital, is the primary source of revenue for the entire organization.

Gifford Medical Center’s fiscal year 2024 operating revenue is expected to total just over $64 million, and it is proposing an 8% increase to $69.3 million for the coming year, according to the presentation. Some of that increase would come from a 6.8% average increase the hospital is requesting the care board allow it to make to its commercial prices.

Next year, Gifford Medical Center expects to have a healthier operating margin than this year and last, at least in part due to completing the challenging installation of a new electronic records system, according to its budget narrative .

The entire organization — which had revenue of $156.3 million in 2023 , and an operating deficit of almost $14.5 million — continues to face concerns common to other rural providers, including difficulty recruiting and retaining staff and an increasing number of patients with complex medical health needs, Costa noted in his statement. But despite those challenges, “it’s important not to overlook the strengths of rural health care: access to local services, well-coordinated care, the development of lifelong patient relationships, and the mission-driven experiences we offer our teams,” he said.

“I believe our approach should start with emphasizing why keeping care local is vital for every Vermonter,” Costa added.

Costa’s wide-ranging background in health care administration and Vermont state government were “very advantageous for the kind of work that lies ahead for Gifford” as it seeks to participate in a new federal model for health care payment reform and the next phase of the state’s hospital sustainability initiative , Gifford’s board chair Vic Ribaudo said in a written statement.

Most recently, Costa has served since 2019 as the CEO of Northern Counties Health Care , a primary care and home hospice care provider with clinics across much of the Northeast Kingdom.

Prior to that, Costa was the deputy commissioner for the state Department of Vermont Health Access, which administers Vermont’s Medicaid health insurance program, in the administration of current Gov. Phil Scott. In that role, he oversaw large contracts with OneCare Vermont, the accountable care organization at the heart of the state’s “all-payer” health care payment reform program, and provided state support for OneCare’s operations in the program’s early years beginning in 2017. After leaving that post, Costa was appointed to the board of managers for OneCare , where he continues to serve alongside Bennett, Giffords’ current CEO.

Earlier, Costa was the deputy director of health care reform for the Agency of Human Services under then-Gov. Peter Shumlin. As such, he led development of the financing plan for a proposed single-payer health care system. The proposal was abandoned in December 2014 after the business community balked at the size of the required payroll tax.

A trained attorney, Costa also served as special counsel and director of policy, outreach, and legislative affairs for the Vermont Department of Taxes, and as director of the Blue Ribbon Tax Structure Commission for the Legislative Joint Fiscal Office.

Along with OneCare, he is also on the boards of the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems, the Bi-State Primary Care Association and VNAs of Vermont. He lives with his family in Norwich.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Gifford Health Care taps former Shumlin health care hand as new CEO .