DE Senate Dems approve hospital cost review board picks; Republicans abstain

By Bradley Vasoli

DOVER — Delaware’s 16 Senate Democrats unanimously backed Governor John Carney’s (D) five selections for the Diamond State Hospital Cost Review Board while all six of the chamber’s Republicans abstained from voting.

Former Delaware State University Board Chair Devona Williams, retiring Delaware Secretary of Finance Richard Geisenberger, business executive and former Woodbridge Superintendent Heath Chasanov, former Nanticoke Hospital executive Thomas Brown, and former state finance secretary David Singleton will fill the five seats. Two remain unfilled as yet.

Republicans opposed the legislation, passed earlier this year, creating the board tasked with examining hospital budgets and advising changes for cost-efficiency to limit annual spending growth to about 3 percent.

Senate Republicans bemoaned what they anticipate will be the board’s negative impact on nonprofit medical care through the imposition of government constraints. They emphasized that they didn’t see any of the nominees as problematic but considered them — like anyone else — powerless to turn an ill-conceived review panel into a useful one.

“I personally feel it’s going to be very devastating to our hospitals and their boards in getting the right doctors that we need when they see that they’re regulated [by those] other than their board of directors,” Senate Minority Leader Gerald Hocker (R-Frankford) said. “And I feel any nonprofit should be governed by their own board of directors.”

Sen. Eric Buckson (R-Little Creek) concurred.

“I am not here [in opposition] because of the names [of nominees] that are on my sheet here,” he said. “I am here because I remain convinced that right now, this thing’s not ready to be.”

Democrats did not speak from the Senate floor during the approval process.

In a statement, the governor did not address Republican objections but celebrated his review board nominees as well as several judicial and other appointees.

“I want to thank the members of the Delaware Senate for confirming today’s nominees,” he said. “From serving in our world-class judiciary to contributing to education, health care, and the Delaware River and Bay Authority, I look forward to the impact these highly qualified individuals will make.”

Delaware Healthcare Association President Brian Frazee, whose organization recently asked Carney not to make the review board nominations and leave it to his successor, Governor-elect Matt Meyer, agreed with Republican opposition to those appointments. He explained that he did not dispute the quality of those individuals but rather doubted the merit of the board as currently conceived and the timing of empaneling the board.

He said the DHA, an advocacy group formed by Delaware’s hospitals, has been in discussion with the governor-elect and legislative leaders to adjust the new law’s implementation. While he could not specify all changes his group hoped to see as negotiations go on, he did note that it has consistently attempted to soften the panel’s ability to restrict hospital spending.

Another concern he raised is that ChristianaCare, Delaware’s largest nonprofit hospital network, has a pending lawsuit to strike the review board law. The litigation before the Court of Chancery asserts, in part, that the new statute violates the state Constitution by empowering the state to encroach on private entities’ strategic and business decisions.

“Given all of those dynamics, we would have preferred that Governor-elect Meyer make the appointments once all of that gets settled,” Frazee told Delaware Live. “Obviously, that didn’t happen, but our concerns all along were not about the people that Carney appointed; it was about the process.”

He said that while DHA shares the desire to control healthcare costs, it worries that the review panel could detrimentally affect the quality of and access to care.

Meyer, a Democrat who serves as New Castle County executive, declined to comment through a spokesperson. Senate Democratic leadership also did not return requests for comment.