Delaware
Lawmakers considered defanging controversial Delaware hospital cost review board
Gov. Meyer presents budget for fiscal year
Gov. Matt Meyer presented his budget for the fiscal year Thursday in Dover with an emphasis on education, housing and healthcare. 3/27/25
This story was produced by Spotlight Delaware as part of a partnership with Delaware Online/The News Journal. For more about Spotlight Delaware, visit www.spotlightdelaware.org.
In the weeks since Delaware’s powerful legislative budget committee froze funding to a health care cost-cutting board, lawmakers circulated a proposal to strip the board of its chief enforcement tool, according to a copy of the proposal obtained by Spotlight Delaware.
The proposal to remove the board’s ability to veto hospital budgets struck at the heart of its central mission of forcing financial austerity onto the state’s health care systems – including Delaware’s largest and most politically influential one, ChristianaCare.
It also came after a Delaware judge ruled late last month that ChristianaCare’s legal challenge to the board’s authority over its budgets could continue.
In the end, lawmakers on the budget-setting Joint Finance Committee decided not to move forward with the proposal.
Instead, on Tuesday, June 17, they are expected to simply reinstate the frozen funds to the health care board, called the Diamond State Hospital Cost Review Board.
Senate Democratic Caucus Chief of Staff Jesse Chadderdon told Spotlight Delaware that lawmakers had discussed the proposal to strip the board of its authority over hospital budgets, but failed to gain a consensus on the matter among the members who sit on the Joint Finance Committee.
The measure to reinstate $1 million that had been frozen from the board two weeks ago was a more palatable proposal, Chadderdon said.
Still, cuts to another $1.5 million in reserve funds, which had been in place for the board’s litigation and other costs, will remain.
The fact that legislators, especially those in the State Senate, even considered such a proposal is notable, as statehouse Democrats have defended the merits and need of the board over the objections of Republicans and hospital leaders for more than a year.
It is not immediately clear why lawmakers on the Joint Finance Committee want to undo the funding freeze that they approved just two weeks ago. Chadderdon asserted that the original freeze was unconstitutional.
When asked about Tuesday’s meeting and about the proposal that had been considered, Rep. Kim Williams (D-Stanton), who chairs the Joint Finance Committee, said simply that the committee is meeting to discuss language in the state’s budget that pertains to the hospital cost review board.
What would the proposal have done?
According to the draft copy of the legislation, which was to be inserted as epilogue language to the annual state operating budget, lawmakers had considered stripping the board of the ability to punish hospital systems that are not compliant with its efforts to rein in costs, including making changes to their budget.
It would leave a board that was largely tasked with obtaining currently private revenue and expenditure information that would better inform the public of the operation of its hospital systems and writing performance improvement plans for those found to be exceeding cost-containment goals set by the state.
If a hospital system failed to execute an improvement plan though, the board would only be able to extend or amend such a plan, but have no way of enforcing it.
It would also push back implementation of the law to next year.
Fight has drawn on
In all, the developments mark the latest chapter in more than a year of lobbying surrounding the board tasked with bringing down hospital costs in Delaware, which are among the highest in the country.
It began last spring when hospital board members and administrators flooded Dover wearing white coats in efforts to oppose the bill that created the Diamond State Hospital Cost Review Board.
It continued late last year when two opposing local lobbying forces – the Delaware Hospital Association and a coalition of public sector unions – each pressured then-Gov. John Carney over whether to nominate members to the newly created state board.
Carney, who at the time was in his final months as governor, was seen as more supportive of the hospital cost review board than his successor Gov. Matt Meyer.
Delaware Hospital Association President Brian Frazee told Spotlight Delaware then that Meyer had shown a willingness to make changes to the law that created the board.
Frazee also said then that his group’s primary complaint was with the review board’s legal authority to modify hospital budgets that its members deem excessive. His comments followed assertions from ChristianaCare that the board threatens the hospital’s ability “to care for the community.”
But, public sector unions countering Frazee’s lobbying pointed to high health costs in Delaware, and argued in a letter to the governor last year that large portions of the state government’s budget “are being devoured by unchecked health care costs that continue to rise faster than the rate of inflation.”
Ultimately, Carney did appoint five members of the board in the waning days of his term and Meyer has added two more. They have met a handful of times but have not advanced the mission of the board in significant ways to date.
Lobbying has since sustained through this year’s legislative session, including last month when Delaware Healthcare Association and other nonprofits sent a joint letter to lawmakers urging them to postpone the implementation of the cost review board for one year.
In response, the coalition of state worker unions again sent a competing letter, calling on the legislature to “reject the Delaware Healthcare Association’s latest request to delay the Board’s work.”
What followed was the Joint Finance Committee decision to freeze funding to the hospital cost review board.
Williams, the committee chair, told Spotlight Delaware then that her decision to pause the funding wasn’t influenced by lobbying.
Instead, she said the state should not continue to pay to implement a board “whose future is so uncertain.”
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Delaware
Elon Musk-Led Overhaul of Delaware Business Law Upheld by State Court
Delaware
Delaware County school employee accused of sex assault of minor in Texas
RADNOR, Pa. – Authorities say a Delaware County school employee is accused of traveling to Texas to sexually assault a minor he met online.
What we know:
Michael Robinson, 43, was taken into custody near Radnor Middle School where investigators say he worked as a paraprofessional.
Investigators believe Robinson traveled to Tyler, Texas in the summer of 2024 to meet a minor he had connected with online.
Robinson, according to U.S. Marshals, allegedly sexually assaulted the teen over the course of a weekend.
Delaware County school employee accused of sex assault of minor in Texas
Prosecutors in Smith County, Texas charged Robinson in December with Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child Under 15-years-old.
Robinson is being held at a Delaware County jail where he is awaiting extradition to Texas.
What they’re saying:
U.S. Marshals in Pennsylvania said Robinson’s arrest shows that “sexual predators will always be pursued relentlessly.”
The Radnor Township School District said Robinson has been placed on leave and will not have contact with students.
“Parents of the limited number of children to whom the employee was assigned were contacted by the administration immediately.”
The district said it is cooperating with law enforcement and has “no information indicating misconduct involving district students.”
Delaware
Rehoboth cancels 2026 Polar Bear Plunge after major snowstorm
Lewes Polar Bear Plunge in Rehoboth Beach
Participants flock to the water at the Lewes Polar Bear Plunge, which raises funds for Special Olympics Delaware on Sunday, February 2, 2025.
Rehoboth Beach has canceled the upcoming 2026 Lewes Polar Bear Plunge and 5K Run to the Plunge as the Sussex County resort town continues dealing with the aftermath of last weekend’s snowstorm, organizers of the annual Special Olympics fundraiser said on Feb. 26.
“Rehoboth Beach is navigating significant challenges because of the snowstorm,” a Special Olympics Delaware email announced. “At present, the boardwalk and all beach crossings remain snow covered and many sidewalks throughout downtown Rehoboth are as well.”
The plunge and 5K had been rescheduled to March 1 after severe weather conditions in late January caused it to be moved from its original Feb. 1 date.
The plunge will not be rescheduled for this year.
Last weekend’s storm brought nearly 2 feet of snow to parts of Sussex, closing hundreds of roads when trees and wires were downed. There were also power outages across the county, including Rehoboth Beach which had to restore power to its wastewater treatment facility.
Plunging for a cause
The polar bear plunge is one of Special Olympics Delaware’s more popular fundraisers, drawing more than 4,000 participants last year.
In recent years, the event has been bringing in more than a million dollars for Special Olympics Delaware. Last year, plunge events drew $1.3 million, just shy of the record-breaking $1.5 million raised in 2024.
Alex Seymore, Special Olympics Delaware’s director of digital media, said the organization had already raised more than $1 million from this year’s event.
“We expect a small impact,” Seymore told Delaware Online/The News Journal. “But again, we’re showing that we’ve raised over a million dollars.
He added they are reviewing how the cancelation will impact them and their services.
“It’s been just a couple hours, so we’re not completely positive how it will impact things in the long run,” he said. “We’re thankful for everybody that’s helped raise this money through this time.”
What is still occurring
While the plunge and 5k and been canceled this year, there are other indoor events that will continue as scheduled:
Feb. 27
- 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. – pick up packets and souvenir sales for the Plunge and 5K Run to the Plunge at the Rehoboth Beach Convention Center, 229 Rehoboth Ave, Rehoboth Beach.
Feb. 28
- noon to 2 p.m. Fire & Ice in the Atlantic Sands Ballroom, 1 Baltimore Ave, Rehoboth Beach.
- 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Restaurant chili contest.
- 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. – pick up packets and souvenir sales for the Plunge and 5K Run to the Plunge at the Rehoboth Beach Convention Center, 229 Rehoboth Ave, Rehoboth Beach.
Send tips or story ideas to Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299 or eparra@delawareonline.com.
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