'Keeping Delawareans healthy' | Carney signs bill into law strengthening primary care for patients - WDEL 1150AM

"I think about the things, particularly in healthcare, that we focus on," said Gov. John Carney Friday. "There's not much that's more important than this, right? It's trying to get more of our healthcare service delivery upfront, primary care physicians, and that's what this bill is all about."

On October 1, 2021, Carney signed into law Senate Substitute 1 for Senate Bill 120, a substantial piece of legislation addressing a myriad of issues with how healthcare is both delivered and for how it is paid. Carney said he knew implementing the legislation would come with its challenges, but that it's important for the people of Delaware it be enacted.

The bill's primary sponsor, state Sen. Bryan Townsend, said the bill's premise is easy to understand.

"[It] simply makes it clear the priority in Delaware is to keep people healthy in a healthcare system, and the way to do that is to invest more in primary care," Townsend said. "Keep people healthy on the front-end, rather than just waiting for people to be unhealthy on the back-end."

The bill outlines the following efforts:

• Directs the Health Care Commission to monitor compliance with both value-based care delivery and alternative payment methods
• Price growth for inpatient, outpatient, and other medical services are limited to certain percentage increases
• Requires insurers to spend a certain percentage of its total cost on primary care
• Requires the Office of Value-Based Health Care Delivery to establish mandatory minimums for payment innovations and alternative payment models, to be evaluated annually
• Revises the appointment process for members of the Primary Care Reform Collaborative "who are not members by virtue of position to comply with the requirements of the Delaware Constitution."
• Makes a number of technical corrections

Townsend called it a team effort years in the making, and pointed to primary sponsor in the state House, departing Rep. David Bentz, as one of the reasons this bill eventually made its way to the governor's desk.

"Primary care is that access point, that best value for every dollar spent in health care, and that's where we should be focusing a lot of our dollars," Bentz said. "So much of it--so much of the money, so much of our investment--was going on that back-end, in the hospital settings...How do we try to address that? How do we make sure that the healthcare dollars are spent, are being put to the best use, both for financial value, economic value, but then also for public health value? And that's investing in primary care, keeping people healthy and keeping Delawareans healthy."

The legislation should also build up the trust in one of the healthcare chain's most important relationships, said Delaware Department of Health and Social Services Secretary Molly Magarik: that which is between the patient and their primary care provider.

"When we're talking about primary care, it really is the most trusted relationship in the healthcare system," Magarik said. "From the patient's trust of their pediatrician, to them being older and potentially having to manage multiple chronic conditions, it is the primary care clinician--by their experience, training, and their empathy and compassion--that really validates and creates a profound relationship that keeps patients healthy. And so this legislation validates that relationship, and invests in it, so that it can continue into the future."

Moving healthcare to a patient-centered outcome approach, as opposed to a service and volume model, was integral to combating ever-increasing costs associated with healthcare, Magarik said. The country spends 18% on healtchcare gross domestic product, said Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long, which is entirely too much.

"This is another way that we're going to make sure to provide the necessary support for the soldiers on the frontline, our healthcare providers," Hall-Long said.

The move should also help retain more primary care physicians, who were leaving Delaware at an "alarming rate," according to Delaware Insurance Commissioner Trinidad Navarro.

"We knew that the best way to help people stay healthy is to make sure they're healthy, and that the importance of primary care is finding...illnesses in folks that we can treat early on, before they get to the ER," he said. "It's about spending money now, and saving tremendously later on. So, with the signing of this bill, those plans will be put into action."

source: https://www.wdel.com/news/keeping-delawareans-healthy-carney-signs-bill-into-law-strengthening-primary-care-for-patients/article_9612cac0-22ca-11ec-9e80-a3f741c2bf3b.html

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