Governor Dean comments on FAHC allegations

Print More
MP3

The trustees of Fletcher Allen hospital have placed President William Boettcher on paid leave while a special committee investigates allegations that he deliberately misled state regulators.

VPR’s Bob Kinzel reports on Governor Dean’s reaction.

Governor Howard Dean says the allegations of deception involving top management officials at Fletcher Allen is the most serious health care issue he has seen in his tenure as governor. Dean says he is reviewing a number of options that the state can take in this case, however he declined to list what these options are. But the governor made it very clear that all of the options have very serious consequences:

(Dean) “This is an accusation of corporate malfeasance by the most important health care institution in the state and we take it extremely seriously. And I think eventually there are going to be some extremely serious steps taken, but we do have to find out what the facts are first. Until we find out what the facts are, it’s pretty hard to say definitively what we’re going to do about it.”

(Kinzel) There are indication that a number of management officials and board members were aware of the alleged deception. If that turns out to be true, Dean says these people will be held accountable for their actions:

(Dean) “And the question is, was there an ongoing pattern of deliberately deceiving regulators? And if there was, that’s very, very serious and I think there will be a great many people that stepping down.”

(Kinzel) Dean says he hopes to act on this issue in the next week.

For Vermont Public Radio, I’m Bob Kinzel in Montpelier.

Comments are closed.