This study evaluates the early impact of Delaware House Bill (HB) 373, which had a goal to reduce medical expenses in the state’s workers’ compensation system by 33 percent over three years. It discusses the impact HB 373 had on fee schedule rates and the actual prices paid for professional services. For hospital outpatient services and ambulatory surgery center (ASC) services, the study addresses the legislation’s potential impact by comparing the established fee schedule rates with the actual pre-change payments. 

To provide some context on where Delaware stands with respect to other states, the study compared the workers’ compensation professional fee schedules in Delaware for the pre-change and post-change years with fee schedule rates in other states as of 2016. It also compared pre-change workers’ compensation hospital outpatient payments and post-change fee schedule rates in Delaware with hospital outpatient payments in 32 other states for the most common knee surgery. Similar analysis was conducted for ASC services.