Why Should Delaware Care?
As Delaware health care spending continues to rise year over year, a board responsible for regulating the state’s hospitals has been under constant scrutiny. More than a year after the state’s largest hospital system sued Delaware over the board’s authority, both parties appear to be in settlement talks.
A settlement may be on the horizon for a contentious lawsuit over the future of a Delaware regulatory board responsible for managing hospital spending, according to a recent comment from Gov. Matt Meyer.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Sept. 17, Meyer said that “negotiations are ongoing” between the state and ChristianaCare, Delaware’s largest and most influential health system, which sued last year over the creation of the board.
It’s the latest development in an already drawn out fight over the role and authority of the Diamond State Hospital Cost Review Board, which has struggled to find its footing since launching early this year.
Meyer’s comments come weeks after attorneys for the two sides agreed to pause further proceedings until Sept. 30 in “the interests of the parties and the public.” A lawyer for ChristianaCare declined to comment on Monday, while state lawyers did not return calls from Spotlight Delaware.
According to meeting minutes from the cost review board’s Aug. 12 meeting, members approved a resolution that would “defer any further development of regulations until its October 2025 meeting.”
David Singleton, the chairman of the hospital cost review board, said on Friday that the state’s lawyers had asked the board in August to hold off on working on those resolutions until October.
It is unclear when, or if, a settlement would be reached and how it would impact the board. The governor’s office declined to answer follow-up questions from Spotlight Delaware on Friday.
Delaware’s hospital cost review board serves as an oversight mechanism for the state to review hospital budgets and spending. In 2024, former Gov. John Carney signed House Bill 350 into law, creating the board.
It came after a sustained, but ultimately failed, lobbying effort by hospitals to block the bill.
Following HB 350’s passage, ChristianaCare filed a lawsuit against the state that challenged the constitutionality of the law. In its court filings, the hospital system called the cost review board “draconian,” pointing particularly to its ability to veto hospital budgets it deems excessive.
According to ChristianaCare’s complaint filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery, the law gave the state’s executive branch the authority to “direct the internal operations and affairs of privately-owned hospitals.”
In June, a judge allowed the lawsuit to continue despite state attempts to dismiss the case.
A report released by the state’s health department earlier this year said Delaware exceeded its self-imposed health care spending goals for the third consecutive year in 2023.
Throughout his tenure, Meyer has expressed he does not believe the board addresses the increased health care spending in the state. Soon after his inauguration, the governor appointed two longtime ChristianaCare executives to the board after Carney appointed five of the seven voting members on his way out of office — only one of whom was connected to a hospital.
Transparency Notice
David Singleton serves on the board of advisors for Spotlight Delaware. Advisors have no role in the editorial decision-making of Spotlight Delaware. For more information, see our Boards page.