MIDDLEBURY — State officials on Monday gave the green light to a private, New Jersey-based home-health services provider to operate in Vermont, a scenario that some state nonprofits believe could bring more competition in an industry already beset with tight margins.
At issue is a successful effort from Bayada Nurses Inc. of Moorestown, N.J., to buy Professional Nurses Service Inc. (PNS) of Vermont, which in 2005 became the first private firm to be given state permission to compete against nonprofits for clients in the home health services industry.