Your membership dues supported the MMA's efforts to advocate for physicians and their patients during the 2010 Legislative Session. Because of members like you, the MMA was able to achieve the following legislative goals:

• Protected physicians from the release of flawed data produced by the state's clinic and hospital comparison project, known as provider peer grouping, by establishing reliability and validity standards before it is deemed to be reliable and valid.
   
• Repealed language that would have prohibited clinics scoring in the bottom 10 percent of the provider peer grouping project from treating patients covered by state-subsidized health insurance plans.
   
• Improved contracting processes through enhanced disclosure and transparency requirements and by limiting the timeline for retroactive claims adjustments. The MMA worked with the Minnesota Medical Group Management Association to get this bill passed.
   
• Stopped $55 million in funding cuts to the Medical Education and Research Costs (MERC) program.
   
• Stopped chiropractors from expanding their scope of practice and winning the legal right to use the term "chiropractic physicians."
   
• Defeated a new state-based controlled substances registry that would have required all prescribers to register with the Board of Pharmacy.
   
• Increased the safety of mothers by calling for licensing guidelines for nonhospital-based birthing centers. To be licensed, the centers must be accredited by the Commission for the Accreditation of Birth Centers. 
   
• Fought obesity by supporting new laws requiring state-wide physical education standards. 
   
• Stopped lawmakers from defining clinical protocols by defeating a bill that would have prohibited the Board of Medical Practice from taking action against physicians who use long-term antibiotics to treat Lyme disease.
   
• Protected patients by supporting interpreter registration and a new state policy requiring interpreters to be registered to receive reimbursements from Medical Assistance.

 The Physician Advocate

    
  Inside:
  What Passed and What Didn't
  New Contracting Rules for Clinics
  GAMC Details