Laid off from UVM Health.
UVM Health's job cuts have come as Vermont's regulators held down what its hospitals could charge. In 2025 the layoffs fell largely on back-office jobs, and by 2026 they had moved into patient care, including two hospital units it planned to close and, by the unions' count, nurses' jobs.
What we know about UVM Health severance and layoffs
- 199 positions in the job cuts UVM Health announced in September 2026
- 142 positions eliminated in June 2026, including 66 recast as new roles
- 146 roles eliminated in July 2025, 69 of them vacancies left unfilled
- 9 positions eliminated at two New York hospitals in April 2026
- 45-day transition period for staff in the September 2026 job cuts
- 17% fewer executive positions across UVM Health in the year to September 2026
The most recent UVM Health layoff we've found
About 199 positions would be eliminated in late October, UVM Health's chief executive told staff in a September 15, 2026 email, and a 179-job notice went to Vermont the same day. Seven Days reported in October that people whose positions were cut were to remain employed through a 45-day transition.
What UVM Health layoffs have meant for employees
How long people stayed on after hearing the news has differed from one cut to the next. In July 2025 some staff were to remain in their jobs until the fiscal year ended in late September while other positions ended that week, the network's spokesperson told VTDigger. In September 2026, people whose positions were eliminated were to remain on the payroll through a transition period, Seven Days reported, while hospital leaders said they could apply to other positions in the organization. UVM Health's June release said HR was engaging union partners and ensuring employees received the protections their contracts set out, and chief executive Stephen Leffler's September email said unions were told about affected members under their bargaining agreements.
Not every position UVM Health cut was filled. When the network announced its July 2025 cuts, VTDigger reported that it had chosen not to fill 120 vacant positions the year before and would leave more open alongside the layoffs. In June 2026, union representatives said in VTDigger's June 18 report that the hospital asked some employees for voluntary departures before it moved to formal layoffs. And in both systemwide rounds of 2026, part of what was eliminated was to be reposted as rewritten work. The June release said 66 positions would be posted as new roles with restructured job descriptions, and about a quarter of September's positions were to be restructured into new roles, Vermont Public reported. If your position was among September's restructured ones, that report says affected staff could apply for the new roles, and Leffler's email said many displaced clinical staff would have a chance to apply for other roles across UVM Health.
The September email also gives the network's account of why the cuts have come. Leffler wrote that the system faced a major budget shortfall and was paying its bills from savings, that it couldn't meet its expense-reduction mandates without reducing its workforce, and that this round wasn't the first or the last step it would need to take. In October, Seven Days reported that the planned unit closings came as an independent liaison directed UVM Health to cut $300 million in expenses over three years, partly because of budget cuts the Green Mountain Care Board required. The timing has run close to the board's calendar as well. The July 2025 cuts came a week before its hospital budget hearings, VTDigger reported, and September 2026's came the day after it ordered price cuts, though a spokesperson told Vermont Public those layoffs had been planned well ahead. The same email put executive positions down 17% over the year.
The cuts haven't stayed in Vermont. UVM Health also runs three New York hospitals, Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh, Alice Hyde Medical Center in Malone and Elizabethtown Community Hospital, and the June cuts extended to Plattsburgh with a planned shutdown of CVPH's Adirondack Blood Donor Center, which WAMC said supplied 95 percent of the blood that hospital used. Amounts and filing steps for the two states where the network has hospitals are laid out on New York unemployment benefits and Vermont unemployment benefits.
In the WARN tracker, the July 2025 Vermont notice is filed under University of Vermont Health Network and the two from 2026 under University of Vermont Health, the shorter name the network had adopted by October 2025, when VTDigger reported its rebrand alongside Leffler's start as chief executive. Porter Medical Center's 2016 notice is filed under the hospital's name.
A sourced history of UVM Health layoffs
September 2026, 199 positions and two planned unit closings
About 199 positions were to go in late October, about 55 of them restructured into new roles, the CEO wrote in a September 15 email. Baird 3 and an alternative care pod, two UVM Medical Center units, were expected to close by October's end, Seven Days reported on October 14. UVM Health's Vermont notice listed 179.
June 2026, 142 positions across Vermont and New York
UVM Health's June 9 release counted 142 eliminated positions, 66 to be reposted as restructured roles. Six cytogenetics lab staff were cut, effectively closing the lab, VTDigger reported.
April 2026, nine positions at two New York hospitals
Nine positions were eliminated at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital and Alice Hyde Medical Center, WCAX reported, with President Michelle LeBeau citing rising costs and policy changes.
July 2025, 77 positions cut and 69 vacancies left open
The University of Vermont Health Network said it would cut 68 staff and nine leadership roles, largely in finance, human resources and information technology, and leave 69 vacancies unfilled, VTDigger reported. Its Vermont notice listed 60.
November 2024, service cuts the network blamed on state orders
The network announced plans to close Central Vermont Medical Center's inpatient psychiatric unit and end UVM Medical Center's transplant department, VTDigger reported. Of about 200 affected employees, roughly 100 were travelers whose contracts wouldn't be renewed and about 100 were permanent staff the network planned to place in other positions.
What to do if you're laid off from UVM Health
- File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. UVM Health's biggest hubs: Vermont. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
- Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what UVM Health's hub states run: Vermont, and every other state is here.
- Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
- Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
- Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.
UVM Health layoff and severance questions
What severance has UVM Health given laid-off employees?
For the September 2026 cuts, chief executive Stephen Leffler's September 15 email said people whose jobs were eliminated would be offered severance that depended on their years of service, and Seven Days reported that those cut would stay on the payroll for 45 days, with severance available to any eligible worker who didn't find another role. For the June 2026 round, UVM Health's June 9 release said it was offering transition support and ensuring employees got the protections in their contracts.
Did UVM Health lay off nurses?
AFT-Vermont said the September 2026 cuts would affect at least 50 unionized nurses and 40 support staff at UVM Medical Center, Vermont Public reported. In June the nurses' union estimated that 10 nurses were losing their jobs, in primary care, internal medicine, obstetrics/gynecology and fertility clinics in Burlington and Middlebury, according to VTDigger. The network's June 9 release put most of that round outside direct patient care.
Which Vermont hospitals did UVM Health's September 2026 cuts hit?
UVM Medical Center in Burlington accounted for 118 of the positions, Central Vermont Medical Center in Berlin for 24 and the Helen Porter Rehabilitation and Nursing facility in Middlebury for 15, with 28 more in shared services, Vermont Public reported. The plan for UVM Medical Center included shuttering an alternative care pod for older patients awaiting discharge, which Seven Days said on October 14 was winding down admissions ahead of its planned shutdown.
How many UVM Health filings are in the WARN tracker?
The WARN tracker lists four Vermont notices, three of them UVM Health's since July 2025, for 60, 142 and 179 jobs, 381 in all, with the 2026 pair accounting for 321. The fourth is a 2016 notice from Porter Medical Center, which UVM Health's June 2026 release lists among its hospitals. None of the tracker's New York rows, which start in 2026, names CVPH, Alice Hyde or Elizabethtown.
What happens to UVM Health employee housing after a layoff?
For the seven network-housing tenants affected by September 2026's cuts, a UVM Health spokesperson told WCAX they'd have at least 105 days, or until their lease ended if that came later, before they had to move out, and a United Way coordinator was working with all seven on housing if they didn't land another hospital role. If you rent from UVM Health and your job is among those cut, the later deadline is the one that applies, by that account.