ChristianaCare files a lawsuit against the hospital cost review board created by lawmakers this year.
ChristianaCare alleges the newly created board is unlawful and threatens their mission “to care for the community.”
The healthcare system argues House Bill 350, which passed the General Assembly entirely along party lines in June, violates Delaware’s general corporation law and state constitution by authorizing state control over decision-making authority from certain private hospital boards.
ChristianaCare also alleges federal constitutional violations by forcing private hospitals to disclose confidential information about its future priorities and strategy, and by unfairly targeting only a few private hospitals.
“House Bill 350 raises important questions about the integrity of the corporate franchise in Delaware, and whether it is legal for the government to usurp authority over core business decisions such as setting the budget from a corporation’s duly elected board,” Chair of ChristianaCare’s Health System Board Nicholas Marsini says in a statement.
Chair of ChristianaCare’s Health Services Board Lolita Lopez adds in a statement, "This lawsuit is necessary to preserve and ensure independence in clinical decision-making and patient care, critically necessary hospital services and resources, non-profit board autonomy, and a strong health care delivery system in this community for generations to come,"
Republican lawmakers have opposed creating the board since the legislation was introduced. Senate Minority Leader Brian Pettyjohn says its government overreach.
“This whole framework of coming in and the state having to approve the budgets and the operations of these nonprofit corporations is just concerning," he says.
Pettyjohn adds it could become a slippery slope.
“If you’re looking at them as nonprofits and the state doesn’t necessarily like the way that they are spending their money, who’s next?” Pettyjohn says.
But Senate Majority Leader Bryan Townsend says behind closed doors, those GOP lawmakers acknowledge there is problem.
“I have Republican colleagues who vote 'no' on this legislation and other health reform over the years and then privately say they know how bad it is out there and how much these hospitals are hurting people," Townsend says. "Delaware is an extremely uncompetitive healthcare arena, there is tremendous consolidation of power within hospitals and the health networks that they run. So anytime the government steps up in that context, Republicans tend to cry foul and say its government overreach as if we can leave it to these tremendous economic juggernauts to take care of people.”
And Townsend adds he isn't surprised ChristianaCare is the only health system to file, noting they made no secret of their “disdain” for lawmaker's efforts.
“Legislators who voted ‘no’ on this legislation would tell you, hopefully privately, this is what they told me privately, is that ChristianaCare is a big, big part of the problem in the Delaware health landscape," Townsend says. "And here it now is, plaintiff in a lawsuit trying to undermine transformational legislation that will try to keep Delawareans healthier while not raiding their bank accounts to fund a tremendous amount of executive authority at ChristianaCare.”
Townsend says lawmakers had productive conversations with other hospitals like Beebe Healthcare to amend the legislation and work together.
Pettyjohn suggests there are other ways to address rising healthcare costs in the state, such as reevaluating what prescription drugs are covered under insurance and investing in preventative care and education. He says much of healthcare is now what he calls "sick care," where the cost to treat illness after-the-fact or in emergencies is the most expensive.
House and State Senate Republicans released statements fully supporting the lawsuit.
A joint statement from Townsend and House Speaker Valerie Longhurst says they believe the new Diamond State Review Board will withstand judicial and constitutional scrutiny.
“The delivery of high-quality and economically sustainable health care is of paramount concern to the state government and to our constituents, and House Bill 350 went through many iterations as we tried to craft a solution that would deliver for Delaware's hard-working taxpayers, while accommodating practical and policy concerns raised by the hospital industry – including Christiana Care," Townsend and Longhurst say. “We are disappointed that the state’s largest hospital system has chosen to continue in an oppositional posture, rather than working with the General Assembly and other stakeholders to fine tune the structure and operation of the Board – which they have not even allowed to get off the ground before working to undermine it.”
The suit was filed in Delaware’s Court of Chancery. ChristianaCare declined to comment further on the lawsuit.
