(Dover, DE – May 2, 2025) – Following the release of Delaware’s fifth annual Health Care Benchmark Trend Report, Delaware Healthcare Association President & CEO Brian Frazee issued the below statement.
 
“In Delaware, we pride ourselves on being a state of neighbors and being there for one another in challenging times. That time is now. We face uncertainty on the national level and the likelihood of deep cuts to healthcare programs. We need a collaborative approach to ensure quality, accessible, equitable, and affordable care for our patients and communities. DHA is committed to working with state leaders, legislators, and the Delaware Health Care Commission on how to strengthen our healthcare system.
 
At this year’s release of the Health Care Benchmark Trend Report, it was shared that pharmacy has the highest rate of growth and that most states, including Delaware, are trending higher than their benchmarks. Hospital expenditures are also increasing along with nearly every other sector of the healthcare system. However, what was missing from the presentation was the “why” behind the growth and whether the increase in expenditures is focused on areas that will improve health access and outcomes in our uniquely aging and growing state. That lack of context does not support transparency or data-driven decision-making. The good news is that the Delaware Health Care Commission is showing leadership in recognizing the shortcomings of the current benchmark report and the need for better data to find out what the growth is showing and how we can better ensure we are all working together to improve health outcomes.
 
DHA is wholeheartedly supportive of transparency in Delaware’s healthcare system so that we can identify the drivers of healthcare costs and better track what investments are strengthening health access, quality, and outcomes. Better data means transparency, not control.
 
The HB 350 law authorizes a state-run board to ask a hospital for their entire budget and future strategic plans. It has not been determined how hospitals will be held individually accountable to the healthcare spending benchmark, which includes factors outside of their control, but if they do exceed the benchmark, the board can place a hospital on a performance improvement plan. Staying under the benchmark will clearly be a challenge as all sectors of Delaware’s healthcare system exceeded the healthcare spending benchmark, but Delaware’s nonprofit hospitals are the only ones that are being held accountable to this arbitrary metric. If the HB 350 board is not satisfied with the PIP process, the board has the authority to step into their private governance and take over the hospital’s budget. If you control the budget, you control the hospital.
 
HB 350 was modeled off Vermont’s failed hospital control board and will not move our state forward on health access or quality. As we are seeing play out in Vermont, the control board approach will have the opposite effect. Vermont’s Green Mountain Care Board controls hospital budgets but Vermonters still have the highest health insurance costs in the country while ranking high in overall healthcare costs and low in hospital quality. It’s why no other state in the country is looking to Vermont as a model for healthcare policy. We can and should do better in Delaware.
 
We are facing too many unknowns as a state to have this be the answer to our problems. There was no stakeholder process to determine what makes sense for Delaware prior to HB 350 being enacted and we know there is a better way forward. We are pleased that the Delaware Health Care Commission has signaled a commitment to looking at the data on drivers and outcomes to help inform the right policy changes that will address our state’s health challenges and improve health for all. HB 350 was the wrong approach and we look forward to working with all stakeholders on real solutions to make the First State first in health.”
 
About the Delaware Healthcare Association
The Delaware Healthcare Association (DHA) was formed in 1967 and is a statewide trade and membership services organization that represents and serves hospitals, health systems, and related healthcare organizations in their role of providing a continuum of appropriate, cost-effective, quality care to improve the health of the people of Delaware. DHA’s mission is to provide policy and advocacy leadership in creating an excellent environment to support our members in helping every Delawarean to be as healthy as they can be.