Valley Vista will shut its Vergennes women’s facility and consolidate all patients at its Bradford location, the rehabilitation center’s chief operating officer said Monday, a decision that comes amid state concern about the company’s financial sustainability.
Starting Tuesday, the Vergennes location will no longer accept patients, Chief Operating Officer and Co-owner Rick DiStefano said in an interview, and newly admitted residents will go directly to the rehab’s Bradford location. Valley Vista hopes to cease its Vergennes rehab program at the end of March, he said.
DiStefano said the consolidation would save money and improve residents’ access to services.
“It makes a great deal of sense to consolidate these services,” DiStefano said. “So that all of the resources — our medical resources, psychiatric resources, clinical resources and administrative resources — will all be able to be located in one campus.”
Valley Vista is the state’s largest substance use disorder treatment provider. Between Bradford, where the facility treats male patients, and Vergennes, Valley Vista currently has 90 beds, according to its website, a number that will stay roughly the same through the shift.
The Vergennes location has been open since 2017. Prior to that, both men and women were treated in separate wings of Valley Vista’s Bradford facility — a practice that, DiStefano said, will now resume.
As of Monday, 18 patients are living at the Vergennes site, according to DiStefano. The facility hopes they will all be able to complete their stints in Vergennes before it closes at the end of March, he said, but it’s possible a handful will move to the Bradford location at the end of the month.
The move will result in the loss of about 20 jobs, DiStefano said, and will save the operator an estimated $60,000 a month or more.
“The downside, obviously, of losing some dedicated, hard-working, good people is something that’s hard to measure. I feel terrible about it. I’ve had a few sleepless nights,” DiStefano said. “But I think overall, for the services, for the sustainability of what we do now and opportunities to enhance the program even further, that this is the best move for Valley Vista.”
The consolidation is not the only cost-saving move taken by the facility in recent months. In December, Valley Vista said it would no longer accept patients on methadone, saying the cost of transportation to and from methadone clinics — which could run up to $400 a day — was no longer affordable.
‘Not financially sustainable’
The Vergennes closure comes amid concerns about the company’s finances, according to court records obtained by VTDigger.
A lawsuit filed in July by TLC Nursing, a Vermont-based health care staffing agency, alleges Valley Vista owes the company more than $2 million for services provided between August 2023 and June 2024. The two companies have had a contract since 2018, court records indicate. A lawyer for TLC Nursing did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday evening.
Valley Vista has received multiple deadline extensions to file an answer in court, with a response due this week.
In a letter sent Jan. 28 to Valley Vista’s leadership, Agency of Human Services Secretary Jenney Samuelson painted a concerning picture of the rehab center’s finances, but affirmed that the state is committed to helping keep the company afloat. TLC Nursing included the letter in its lawsuit.
The state originally sought to “resolve all of Valley Vista’s debts,” Samuelson wrote, but an investigation by the agency determined that the amount of debt and number of creditors “significantly exceeds” the state’s initial expectations.
According to the letter, an accountant who reviewed Valley Vista’s finances found the company’s expenses outpaced its revenues, and that its current structure was “not financially sustainable.”
Despite the worrying assessment, Samuelson wrote that the state remains “committed to providing extraordinary financial relief within a limited amount.” And she acknowledged “recent positive steps” toward a better financial future, including reducing contracted staff and increasing occupancy rates.
An ‘important role’
DiStefano said TLC’s lawsuit was “completely separate” from Valley Vista’s consolidation.
“We’ve been in communication with them, and we have a settlement plan,” he said.
Asked about Samuelson’s letter, DiStefano said it stemmed from a request from Valley Vista for emergency funding. Even though Vermont did not grant that request, state officials have been “nothing but cooperative,” he said.
In an email, Ted Fisher, a spokesperson for the Agency of Human Services, acknowledged that Valley Vista plays an “important role” in the state and that the agency recognized that “temporary consolidation” may be necessary.
“We are aware they are facing financial challenges, and are supporting them in making difficult decisions to get to financial sustainability,” Fisher wrote. “We support them taking this temporary step; this will allow them the time that they need to evaluate their programs more generally and make sure they are sustainably structured going forward.”
The closure of the Vergennes facility does not necessarily mean the center will be permanently shuttered, according to DiStefano. Valley Vista administrators have been considering other uses for the facility, including, potentially, as a less-intensive “step-down” unit — something that advocates say Vermont desperately needs.
“We’re not giving up on Vergennes,” he said.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Amid financial challenges, Valley Vista will consolidate locations, close Vergennes facility.