Seven Days VT book review: Short Takes on Five New Vermont Books
(Ken Picard, 8/26/2026) A Failure of Imagination traces Houser’s path to discovering a more compassionate approach to medicine. But the broader lessons in her book apply to anyone who interacts with the American health care system — that is, all of ...
KevinMD.com: The system isn’t broken. It was built this way.
(Melissa Houser, MD, 8/23/2026) An excerpt from A Failure of Imagination: How the Healthcare System Fails Neurodivergent People—and What We’re Doing Instead. I’m a physician. That’s the only formal training I have. When I set out, I didn’t know how ...
Barre-Montpelier Times Argus: Montpelier physician opens doors to neurodivergence
(Peter Cobb, 8/19/2026) In August 2008, Melissa Houser was in line at a grocery store in New York City. The next thing she knew, she was face down on the floor. Later, she learned she had experienced a “syncope without ...
Barre-Montpelier Times Argus: All Brains Belong brings neurodivergent Vermonters together
(Isabelle Wightman, 5/12/2026) ust behind the city’s firehouse, an unassuming Victorian building holds a doctor’s office that reimagines what healthcare can look like for neurodivergent people. All Brains Belong, a nonprofit that offers primary care for 450 patients, has a ...
VT Digger: Providers try to keep telehealth available in Vermont, 4 weeks into a lapse in most Medicare reimbursements
(Olivia Gieger, 10/30/2025) Some clinicians and hospitals are betting on an extension of Medicare coverage for virtual care while others think creatively to cover the costs of care. For many of the patients served by the Montpelier community health clinic ...
Montpelier Bridge: Medicare Telehealth Coverage Has Ended, Startling Those Who Had Relied on It
(Jenny Blair, 10/21/2025) Disabled and elderly Vermonters who use Medicare woke up Oct. 1 to a new medical care barrier. That day, Medicare stopped covering the cost of telehealth for medical visits. Instead of receiving care via videoconference, many of ...
Melissa Andrews Trust Grant Expands Healthcare Access for Neurodivergent Vermonters as Healthcare Safety Nets Collapse
September 29, 2025 Montpelier, VT — As Vermont faces looming health insurance cuts and the end of Medicare telehealth coverage, All Brains Belong VT has been awarded a grant from the Melissa Andrews Trust to expand care for neurodivergent Vermonters ...
Vermont Medicine: Health Care for the Neurodivergent Community
(Janet Essman Franz, 4/18/2025) “If we can do one thing to improve health care experiences and relationships, it’s to explicitly tell patients that we believe them,” says Melissa Houser, M.D.’12, clinical assistant professor of family medicine at UVM, in a ...
Vermont Public: Neurodivergent Vermonters launch fund for medicine, groceries as Medicaid cuts loom
(Elodie Reed, 2/28/2025) Neurodivergent Vermonters are organizing a new mutual aid effort to supply each other with medicines, groceries and ways to take action during an uncertain time. The effort, led by the Montpelier-based community health organization All Brains Belong, ...
Seven Days: An Autistic Doctor Is Redefining Neurodivergent Health Care
(Ken Picard, 1/15/2025) "People don't just join a medical practice. They are joining a community," said Dr. Melissa "Mel" Houser, 41, who founded All Brains Belong in November 2021. The Long Island native moved to Vermont in 2008 to attend ...

