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Rebooted website to offer transparency as changes are made to state healthcare spending

State officials relaunched choosehealthde.com to try to help consumers learn more about impending changes to healthcare spending in Delaware.

Delaware Health and Social Services Secretary Dr. Kara Odom-Walker in charge of overseeing the changes. She has fiscal year 2018 to plan how to implement an annual spending benchmark for the state’s healthcare system.

Healthcare costs are currently growing faster than Delaware’s economy, and are expected to double by the year 2025

Secretary Walker says the initial step in establishing the benchmark, is detailed data collection to find redundancies in state spending.

“We want to report on what we’re spending—what the total is, what is going into primary, what’s going into inpatient hospitalizations. And then have this public dialogue where we say, ‘maybe we do need to do things better,’” said Walker. “What we’ve seen in other states is just having that transparency has been enough to reduce costs.”

Walker says the information found on the relaunched website is part of that effort to offer some transparency to consumers as changes are implemented.  The site also remains the place to sign-up for insurance on Delaware’s Obamacare marketplace.

“We really thought it was important to make sure we’re putting information on our website, and people can get access to what this benchmark is, how it would affect them. And figure out how to engage—how to talk to legislators about it as well,” said Walker.

There are only two states where healthcare is more expensive than Delaware: Alaska, and Massachusetts. Alaska has additional airfare expenses to add to its cost for care, and Massachusetts ranks among the healthiest states in the country. Delaware is ranked 31st nationally in overall health.

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