State of Vermont
Agency of Human Services
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 9, 2021
Contact:
Will Terry, Legislative Affairs and Communications Officer, Agency of Human Services
Will.Terry@vermont.gov | 802-585-9057
AGENCY OF HUMAN SERVICES ANNOUNCES EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE BLUEPRINT FOR HEALTH
Dr. John Saroyan has been appointed as the Executive Director of Vermont’s Blueprint for Health Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) program, a long-standing and widely recognized health care reform initiative. The Vermont Blueprint for Health (Blueprint) was established to promote the integration of high-quality primary care with human services that impact health and wellbeing.
Ahead of its time when established in 2006, the Blueprint has since been recognized as a national model for enhancing and improving primary care. The program also supports primary care clinicians in providing medication-assisted treatment and wrap-around supports for opioid use disorder as part of the Hub and Spoke model. Today, the Blueprint is a critical foundation for Vermont, as the state moves away from fee-for-service reimbursement to value-based payment models across the health care continuum. These payment models reward providers for good health outcomes instead of providing payment for every additional service and procedure regardless of the outcome.
Dr. Saroyan is joining the health and human services reform team at the Agency of Human Services (AHS) at a time when health care stabilization and system improvement is critical. “As I’ve witnessed first-hand, COVID-19 has had a significant impact on our health care system,” said AHS Secretary, Mike Smith. “Now more than ever, we need to double down on our investments in primary care as the cornerstone for improving health and wellbeing for Vermonters. With John’s leadership experience across settings and age groups, I believe he can bolster the Blueprint program to strengthen and advance primary care in Vermont.”
“Dr. John,” as he is familiarly known, has crisscrossed Vermont and parts of New Hampshire seeing terminally ill people in their homes. He has developed strong relationships with primary care providers, hospitalists, sub-specialists, hospital administrators, nursing home and assisted living staff leadership, and his own hospice team of providers, nurses, social workers, home health aides, and chaplains.
“While I have devoted my entire professional career thus far to alleviating the pain and suffering of chronically and terminally ill individuals, I feel the time is now to turn my experience and knowledge more broadly to prevention, health promotion, and complex care management so that Vermonters may live longer, healthier lives,” said Dr. Saroyan. “I also want to help ensure that our health care practitioners and staff will be there to serve them.”
###