SD 5 Candidates With Christiana Care Ties Oppose Hospital Care Review Board

Among the four candidates running for the Democratic nomination to fill the soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat currently held by Kyle Evans Gay are two with ties to Christiana Care.  Both oppose the Hospital Care Review Board that was legislatively established to address the costs and lack of transparency on pricing from Christiana Care.  For the record, both Senators Gay and McBride voted for the bill, as did Brandywine Hundred legislators Krysta Griffith, Deb Heffernan, and Larry Lambert.  Only Sean Matthews voted no.

The bill:

…creates the Diamond State Hospital Cost Review Board, which will be responsible for an annual review of hospital budgets and related financial information. The Board will have 7 members: 6 appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate, and the Executive Director of the Delaware Healthcare Association. This Act creates a requirement that hospitals submit yearly budgets, audited financial statements, and related financial information to the Board for review. Where a hospital fails to meet the state’s budget benchmark for increases in hospital costs it is required to engage with the Board on a performance improvement plan. If the Board and the hospital cannot agree on an improvement plan or where the hospital fails to successfully implement a performance plan, the Board may require the hospital to have its future budget approved by the Board.

While Christiana Care is not technically a monopoly, it has increasingly become the only available resource for the services it provides to the vast majority of Delawareans.

Karl Baker writes about the two Christiana Care candidates and their opposition to the Cost Review Board:

(Ray) Seigfried – a former senior vice president at ChristianaCare, former health care policy instructor, and member of the state House of Representatives from 2018 to 2020 – opposed the hospital cost review board because he doesn’t believe its members would have sufficient background knowledge to oversee the complexities of hospital pricing. He also said a review board would antagonize hospitals when state officials should be partnering with them.

Still, Siegfried agreed that hospital costs should be lowered, arguing that “it is loud and clear that health care costs are way out of control.”

(Dr. Bryan) Haimes, a ChristianaCare doctor, also opposes a hospital cost review board. He said tying hospital prices to Medicare reimbursement rates would harm care. Instead, he called for the state to push for better access to primary care doctors.

While he sides with ChristianaCare in opposing a review board, Haimes also criticized Delaware’s largest hospital system over transparency, arguing that it has gone “toward a primarily business model.”

Might I point out that, without the Review Board,  Christiana Care’s practices would remain hidden from view.  It’s easy for apologists of Christiana Care’s lack of transparency to pound the podium about high medical costs when they simultaneously fight to keep a key reason for those high medical costs hidden from the public. 

Just something for SD 5 electors to consider when voting on someone to succeed Kyle in Dover.