Delaware’s state House passed a bill to make a board that checks hospital costs, making hospitals share financial info and giving them penalties if they don’t follow the rules.
Delaware State House Approves Creation of Hospital Cost Review Board to Tackle Healthcare Cost Growth
According to the published article in Becker’s Hospital CFO Report, Delaware’s state House recently approved a bill to create a hospital cost review board, as reported by Delaware Online on May 22. This board, called the Diamond State Hospital Cost Review Board, aims to tackle the problem of healthcare costs growing too fast in the state. Delaware saw a big 8.9% increase in how much each person spends on healthcare from 2021 to 2022, the highest in the region.
The new board would ask hospitals to give lots of documents, like budgets for the next year and data on what they spent and earned in the past year. But the board wouldn’t control hospitals’ budgets right away. Instead, hospitals would only get looked at by the board if they don’t meet certain goals for three years in a row. If that happens, hospitals will need to make plans to do better. Hospitals that don’t follow the budget rules could be fined up to $500,000.
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8.9% Increase in Healthcare Spending: Delaware State House Approves Bill to Create Hospital Cost Review Board to Curb Unsustainable Growth (PHOTO: Delaware Online)
Six Delaware Hospitals Impacted by New Healthcare Cost Review Board
Furthermore, this Hospital Cost Review Board plan affects six hospitals and systems in Delaware: ChristianaCare, Bayhealth Kent, Bayhealth Sussex, Beebe, Nanticoke, and St. Francis. The board itself would have six members chosen by the governor, along with the boss of the Delaware Healthcare Association. This shows that the state is trying to do something about healthcare costs and make sure healthcare stays affordable for people in Delaware.
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