February 24, 2022
The bill, authored by Rep. Cedrick Frazier, (DFL-New Hope), establishes payments of $1,500 to qualifying workers in fields such as healthcare, long-term care, EMS, public health, child care, schools, food service, retail, maintenance and security, public transit, and corrections.
The employees must have been employed for at least 120 hours between March 2020 and June 2021. They must also meet income requirements—for healthcare workers, incomes below $175,000 for a single person or $350,000 for a couple, and for non-healthcare workers, incomes below $85,000 for a single person or $185,000 for a couple.
In an earlier version of the bill the healthcare workers excluded physicians. While many physicians wouldn’t qualify because of the income limits, the exclusion also applied to residents and fellows in training. Frazier amended the bill to remove this exclusion. All healthcare workers are now included.
The Senate version of the bill, SF 2650, authored by Sen. Erin Murphy (DFL-St. Paul), is still awaiting a hearing in committee. While there is a commitment from both bodies to provide funding for the frontline worker payments, there is not yet agreement on how broad the definition of frontline worker should be or how much total money should be allocated to the payment pool.
August 20, 2026
A physician and Olympian will give an inspirational address as part of this year's Empowering Physicians event on Friday, September 25, at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
August 20, 2026
Minnesota received some disturbing news this week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as data shows that for the 2025-2026 school year, vaccination rates decreased and non-medical exemptions increased.
August 20, 2026
On August 11, a federal appellate court sided with the Texas Medical Association (TMA) argument that the way the No Surprises Act’s qualifying payment amount (QPA) is calculated has historically favored payers in arbitration.