Updated at 3:37 p.m.
The University of Vermont Health Network president and CEO Sunny Eappen will step down amid mounting pressure over the hospital group’s role in driving up Vermont’s nation-leading health care costs.
Eappen, who has served in the powerful position since late 2022, will give up his titles next month but remain on through December to support the transition, the network said in a press release on Thursday. Stephen Leffler, president of the UVM Medical Center, will assume Eappen’s CEO duties on an interim basis, the network said.
“It’s been my privilege to be part of this team, to see firsthand the way the people of this organization take care of our patients, our communities and each other,” a statement from Eappen said. “But I believe – based on everything that’s happening and all of the external pressures on our rural health system – that this organization needs to move forward in a different way.”
In a statement, Leffler thanked the health network’s nonprofit board for believing in him at this “pivotal time.”
“As health care continues to evolve, this transitional period is going to continue to challenge us all, and I am committed to making sure this health system changes to meet the needs of our patients now and into the future,” Leffler said.
A trained anesthesiologist, Eappen spent years as an executive at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston prior to joining UVM. His tenure here has coincided with a dramatic growth in hospital spending, largely driven by the network’s flagship hospital in Burlington.
Calls to curb costs last year prompted the health network to announce a series of cuts to vital services. Eappen later apologized for the rollout and implementation of the cuts, which he said hurt the network’s trust with patients.
The network has also been criticized for paying out millions in executive bonuses at a time when many people can’t afford their health insurance. Those payouts included a $600,000 bonus to Eappen during the same year the network announced the closure of an inpatient psychiatric unit. (The health network has disputed the characterization of these payments as bonuses, describing them instead as performance-based “variable pay.”)
One final public relations blow came last week. Health care regulators on the Green Mountain Care Board voted to slash $88 million out of the UVM Medical Center’s proposed budget over concerns about how the health network has been managing its six-hospital portfolio.
The network, under Eappen’s leadership, has been draining the Burlington hospital’s margins to support struggling hospitals in New York at the expense of Vermont’s privately-insured patients, regulators said. The comments have added fuel to the yearslong debate over whether the formation of the health network has actually benefited Vermonters.
Asked for a comment about Eappen’s departure, care board chair Owen Foster wrote in a text message, “We wish him good luck in his future endeavors.”