Northern Counties Healthcare CEO Michael Costa in St. Johnsbury on August 5, 2024. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
The former health official from the Shumlin and Scott administrations will lead Randolph-based Gifford HealthCare starting in October, the nonprofit's board of directors announced in a press release Thursday.
Michael Costa will join the central Vermont health care provider on Oct. 14, three days after the retirement of current president Dan Bennett, who joined Gifford Hospital in 2016.
Gifford Health includes Gifford Medical Center, a full-service hospital, as well as an independent living and assisted living facility in Randolph, community medical centers in Berlin, Bethel, Chelsea, Randolph and Rochester, and day care centers for children and adults.
In a written statement, Costa called Giffords “a truly unique organization that deeply reflects the health care needs of our community.”
The leadership role “offers a unique opportunity to lead rural healthcare and demonstrate how to deliver quality services whilst improving the health of the community in a sustainable way,” he said.
Bennett, in a hospital budget presentation to the Green Mountain Care Board earlier this month, called Gifford Health a “primary care-driven organization” and noted that revenue from the hospital's Gifford Medical Center is the main source of income for the entire organization.
Gifford Medical Center is expected to have operating revenues of just over $64 million in fiscal year 2024 and is proposing an 8% increase to $69.3 million next fiscal year, according to the presentation. Part of that increase comes as the hospital is asking the Medical Board for permission to increase its commercial prices by an average of 6.8%.
Giffords Medical Center expects its operating margins to be higher next year than they were this year and last, in part because it has completed the difficult rollout of a new electronic records system, according to a budget statement.
Overall, the organization, which has projected revenue of $156.3 million in 2023 and an operating deficit of about $14.5 million, continues to face concerns common to other rural health systems, such as difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff and a growing number of patients with complex medical needs, Costa noted in a statement. But despite these challenges, “it's important not to overlook the strengths of rural health care – access to local services, well-coordinated care, building lifelong patient relationships, and the mission-driven experience we offer our teams,” he said.
“I believe our approach should start by emphasizing why maintaining local care is important for all Vermonters,” Costa added.
Vic Rivaldo, Giffords Hospital's president, said in a written statement that Costa's extensive background in health care administration and Vermont state government will make him “a great asset to the work ahead” as Giffords seeks to participate in a new federal model for health care payment reform and the next phase of the state's Hospital Sustainability Initiative.
Most recently, since 2019, Costa has served as CEO of Northern Counties Health Care, a primary care and home hospice care provider with clinics in many communities across the Northeast Kingdom.
Previously, Costa served as Deputy Director of the Vermont Department of Health Access, which administers the state's Medicaid health insurance program, under current Governor Phil Scott's administration. In that role, he oversaw a major contract with OneCare Vermont, the accountable care organization that is the centerpiece of the state's “all-payer” health care payment reform program, and provided state support for OneCare's operations during the program's early phase, which began in 2017. After leaving that role, Costa was appointed to OneCare's board of directors, where he continues to serve alongside Bennett, Giffords' current CEO.
Costa previously served as deputy commissioner for health reform in the Department of Human Services under then-Gov. Peter Shumlin, where he led the development of a financing plan for a proposed single-payer health care system that died in December 2014 after industry objected to the amount of payroll tax it would have required.
Trained as an attorney, Costa has served as special counsel and director of policy, outreach and legislative affairs for the Vermont Department of Taxation and as director of the Legislature’s Joint Fiscal Bureau’s Blue Ribbon Tax Structuring Committee.
He serves on the boards of directors for OneCare, the Vermont Hospital and Health Systems Association, the Bi-State Primary Care Association and the Vermont VNAs. He lives in Norwich with his family.
