NEW CASTLE – The Delaware Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) announced today enhancements to the CostAware website, designed to help Delawareans understand how their health care dollars are spent by comparing the variation of average costs for different episodes of care and medical services based on actual medical claims in Delaware.

In early 2020, DHSS and the Delaware Health Care Commission (DHCC) began working with Delaware Health Information Network (DHIN) to develop and implement various health care cost and quality analyses. These analyses leverage data in the Delaware Health Care Claims Database (HCCD), established through legislation passed by the General Assembly in 2016. DHIN manages the HCCD and DHSS uses it to inform and support a variety of health care policy initiatives.

The newest CostAware updates include the addition of data for calendar year 2022 and Medicare Fee For Service (FFS) beneficiaries, an enhanced report comparing costs for brand and generic prescription drugs by drug class and payer category (commercial insurance, Medicaid, Medicare), and new reports for treatment of psychosis and cervical cancer screening.

• New Data: This CostAware release includes results based on analysis of 2022 claims data. Results for 2023 claims data will be added before the end of this calendar year.
• Prescription Drug Costs compares the average daily cost of brand and generic drugs in Delaware by drug class and payer category based on 2022 pharmacy claims data. The enhanced report adds the ability to view results by gender and age group. Prescription drugs are identified by National Drug Code (NDC) and grouped into classes assigned based on the condition the drug is intended to treat.
• Psychosis is a new report that compares the average cost to treat psychosis episodes grouped by diagnosis (report in development, more details soon).
• Cervical Cancer Screening is a new quality focused report that highlights variation in the rate of cervical cancer screening (report in development, more details soon).

“Delawareans can now view additional data and compare costs for brand and generic prescription drugs to help make better decisions around their health care,” said DHSS Cabinet Secretary Josette Manning, who is also a member of the Delaware Health Care Commission. “CostAware continues to be a valuable tool to provide transparency around the health care dollars that are spent by Delawareans and their insurers.”

The most recent version of CostAware (last updated in September 2023) also includes:

• Average costs for episodes of care including C-section births, emergency department visits, knee and hip replacement, and vaginal delivery reported for Delaware hospitals.
• Average costs of imaging procedures including head CT, lumbar spine MRI, and screening mammography by care setting and for Delaware imaging centers.
• Average cost per visit for medical services including child wellness visits, mental and behavioral health services, diabetes care, cardiac procedures, adult doctor visits, and lab tests (blood and urine tests).
• Results reported by care setting including hospital outpatient facility, outpatient lab, professional office, urgent care facility, and telehealth.
• Multiple years of data: Results are reported for calendar years 2019 through 2022.
• Filtering of results by insurance category (commercial insurance, Medicaid, Medicare) and patient age group and gender (as appropriate)

Early in his administration, Governor John Carney said one of the most important things he could do as Governor is to slow the growth of health care spending. The State health care spending benchmark—an annual per-capita-rate-of-growth benchmark for health care spending and multiple health care quality measures that are to be evaluated and adjusted every three years – was established through Executive Order 25 signed by Governor Carney in November 2018 and codified in August of 2023 through House Amendment 1 for House Bill 442. In the most recent benchmark trend report released May 2024 for calendar year 2022, the per capita health care spending in Delaware increased 6.3% to $9,657, outpacing a 3% growth rate benchmark.

The CostAware website was developed by DHSS and DHCC in collaboration with DHIN.

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