April 11, 2024
A bill that would restructure the funding stream for the Minnesota graduate medical education (GME) system to help ensure steady funding for the state’s physicians-in-training was heard in the House Health Finance and Policy Committee on April 9.
Minnesota’s current GME funding program, the Medical Education and Research Costs (MERC), receives about $59 million per year in funding, including a portion paid through state and federally funded Medicaid reimbursement. However, in the 2023 legislative session, the MERC program was reformulated to change reimbursement to a Medicaid inpatient fee-for-service rate. This did not increase funding for teaching hospitals and proponents argue it risks potential funding reductions in the future.
HF 5020 (Liebling, DFL – Rochester) aims to remedy this funding gap by directing the commissioner of human services to determine and pay annual medical assistance (MA) supplemental payments to Minnesota’s teaching hospitals, for direct and indirect physician GME reimbursement. This new funding system is similar to the way Medicare pays a direct and indirect GME supplemental payment to teaching hospitals. The bill is funded through a surcharge on teaching hospitals, which is matched by federal Medicaid funds and paid back to the teaching hospitals.
The aim of the bill is to increase Medicaid rates for teaching hospitals and maximize matching federal funds used to train Minnesota physicians. It is being championed by Metro Minnesota Council on Graduate Medical Education (MMGME) and is supported by the MMA.
The bill was laid over for possible inclusion in a future omnibus bill. The senate companion, SF 4946 (Wiklund, DFL – Bloomington) was also laid over for future inclusion in an omnibus bill.
October 23, 2025
The MMA, along with the University of Minnesota Medical School, will hold a virtual physician forum on November 5 at noon on “Health Professions Education and Minnesota's Rural Health Workforce.”
October 23, 2025
AMA staff have confirmed that, as of October 21, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has guided Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) to lift their temporary holds on Medicare fee-for-service claims impacted by provisions that expired on October 1 – including all Medicare fee-for-service claims in Minnesota.
October 23, 2025
For the second time in eight weeks, national grief expert David J. Schonfeld, MD, FAAP, visited Minneapolis. The first trip was days after the Annunciation Catholic Church and School shooting when he met with school leaders to help with the healing process. He returned October 21 to revisit the school and to meet with local healthcare providers at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) to offer tips on dealing with the aftermath of crisis.