Senate Majority Leader Bryan Townsend passed legislation that is curtailing the rising cost of healthcare for most Delawareans and refocusing the First State’s healthcare system on preventative primary care and beneficial outcomes.
Senate Bill 120 (S) implemented a series of reforms designed to improve the metrics used to reimburse providers, place hard caps on total cost increases of certain inpatient and outpatient medical services, bolster investments in expanding the availability of primary care services, and provide the Department of Insurance more tools to address ballooning costs.
The legislation directed the Delaware Health Care Commission and the Primary Care Reform Collaborative to promote value-based care delivery, a form of reimbursement that ties payments more proactively for care delivery to the quality of care provided and rewards providers for efficiency and effectiveness.
SB 120 (S) also set annual caps to limit how much the cost of medical services supplied by hospitals, dentists, home health care providers, and others could increase in a given year. Those caps are tied directly to the annually adjusted Consumer Price Index developed by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The proposed reforms were informed by the work of the Delaware Department of Insurance and its Office of Value-Based Health Care Delivery, which was created by the General Assembly in 2019. Those agencies also would be tasked with implementing the legislation, creating necessary regulations, and enforcing its measures.
The final version of the bill also included a sunset provision that would require the General Assembly to renew aspects of the legislation by January 1, 2027, allowing for re-evaluation of whether the rate caps and alternative payment models proposed by the bill are working to control health care costs and expand primary care options in Delaware.
