Key Takeaways
- Richard Levy, a 1960 Dartmouth graduate and former chief executive of Varian Medical Systems, gave Dartmouth Health $20 million to launch Dartmouth Health at Home and a Family Caregiver Institute, announced September 29, 2026.
- The gift equals about a third of the $60.7 million in total contributions that Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital, Dartmouth Health's flagship, reported on its most recent full-year Form 990.
- It is 20 times the $1 million Levy and his late wife, Susan, gave in 2020 to start the Susan and Richard Levy Health Care Delivery Incubator at Dartmouth.
Dartmouth Health received a $20 million gift from Richard Levy, a 1960 Dartmouth graduate and former Varian Medical Systems chief executive, to launch Dartmouth Health at Home, a program that brings primary and palliative care into patients' homes, and a Family Caregiver Institute. Dartmouth announced the gift on September 29, 2026.
The money funds three parts of one idea. Dartmouth Health at Home will deliver primary and palliative care in patients' homes rather than in a hospital or clinic. The Family Caregiver Institute at Dartmouth Health will give the relatives who do most of that care hands-on training, help navigating services and access to home care aides. The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice will measure whether the model works. Dartmouth said the program is set to be fully operational by March 2027.
Levy's gift grew out of his own experience. His wife, Susan, was diagnosed about a decade ago with Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disorder, and he became her primary caregiver. Doctors estimated she had three to five years. She lived seven, until 2023. In the announcement, Levy said: "Home care, I think, is the future of healthcare. And Dartmouth may be the world leader in putting that together."
What the records show
Dartmouth Health is a system of separate legal entities, and its flagship hospital carries the operating revenue that makes the gift's size legible. Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital (EIN 02-0222140) reported the following on its Form 990, where the latest filing covers only a short fiscal-year transition period and the last full year ends in June 2025:
- Revenue of $2.66 billion for the fiscal year ending June 2025, which makes the $20 million gift about three-quarters of one percent of a single year's operating revenue.
- Total contributions of $60.7 million that year, so this one gift equals about a third of everything the hospital raised in gifts and grants.
- Total assets of $2.80 billion and net assets of $1.32 billion, against which the gift is a targeted addition rather than a budget line.
The gift also builds on Levy's earlier giving. In 2020, Susan and Richard Levy gave $1 million to start the Susan and Richard Levy Health Care Delivery Incubator, a joint Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Health effort to test new ways of caring for the seriously ill. This gift is 20 times that one and points at the same problem. It ranks as the second-largest 2026 healthcare gift WYDE Newsroom has tracked, behind the $100 million estate gift to EvergreenHealth and ahead of Bank of America's $10 million to Boston Children's Hospital, on the newsroom's list of the largest healthcare gifts of 2026.
Dartmouth Health at Home
The gift lands on a problem that operating revenue rarely covers. Home-based primary care, palliative visits and the training of unpaid family caregivers sit outside most of what insurers reimburse, even though surveys consistently find that patients would rather be treated at home. Dartmouth Health serves a largely rural region across New Hampshire and Vermont, where distance to a hospital is itself a barrier to care. Joanne M. Conroy, the president and chief executive of Dartmouth Health, said in the announcement: "Thanks to Dick Levy's philanthropy, Dartmouth Health at Home will provide patients with high-quality care at home, where most prefer to be treated." The gift follows a run of large 2026 checks to US health systems, including the $100 million estate gift to EvergreenHealth in Washington announced days earlier.
Why it matters
Against a $2.66 billion hospital, $20 million does not change a budget. What it changes is what the system can afford to build before anyone pays for it. Home-based primary and palliative care and support for family caregivers are services that save money system-wide but earn little under current billing, so they tend not to get built. A gift this size underwrites the pilot, the institute and the measurement that have to come first, and ties them to a research arm that can show whether the model holds. If it does, the finding travels further than the money.
People Also Ask
Who is Richard Levy?
Richard Levy is a 1960 graduate of Dartmouth College who earned a doctorate in nuclear chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and retired as chief executive of Varian Medical Systems in 2006. In 2026 he gave Dartmouth Health $20 million to launch at-home care and a Family Caregiver Institute.
What is Dartmouth Health at Home?
Dartmouth Health at Home is a program funded by Richard Levy's $20 million gift that delivers primary and palliative care in patients' homes and establishes a Family Caregiver Institute. Dartmouth said it is set to be fully operational by March 2027.
How big is the Dartmouth Health gift compared with the system's budget?
The $20 million gift is about three-quarters of one percent of the $2.66 billion in revenue that Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital, Dartmouth Health's flagship, reported for its last full fiscal year, and about a third of the $60.7 million it raised in contributions that year.
What is the Family Caregiver Institute at Dartmouth Health?
The Family Caregiver Institute at Dartmouth Health, created by Richard Levy's 2026 gift, will give unpaid family caregivers hands-on training, help navigating available services and access to home care aides.
Sources: Dartmouth, ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, Geisel School of Medicine, Concord Monitor, NHPR, Becker's Hospital Review.