March 31, 2022
On March 28, the Minnesota Senate announced a $1.32 billion budget priority aimed at improving care facilities in Minnesota.
The proposal is intended to help address staffing challenges faced by facilities and agencies that employ personal care assistants and other direct support professionals. It would allocate $1 billion to raise the wages of workers at home care agencies, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and intermediate care facilities. The proposal also contains more than $300 million to recruit additional workers in these facilities.
Most years at this time in the session, legislative leaders set “budget targets” for each area of the state’s budget. This year, however, the Senate has set a “budget priority” for this area. As opposed to budget targets, the budget priority is variable as opposed to a hard-set target. The initiative was announced by Sen. Jim Abeler (R-Anoka) and Sen. Karin Housley (R-Stillwater) and will be heard in the Human Services Reform Finance and Policy Committee on April 5.
The Senate also introduced its Health and Human Services omnibus bill. The bill, SF 4198 (Sen. Paul Utke-R, Park Rapids) includes language to establish interstate license compacts for nurses, audiologists and speech language pathologists. It also includes language protection for prescribers who prescribe controlled substances for the treatment of intractable pain, which the MMA has supported.
The bill also includes language authorizing pharmacists to perform certain lab tests and authorizes pharmacy technician and pharmacist interns to administer vaccines. The MMA has worked with stakeholders to include mutually agreeable language.
SF 4198 was referred to the Senate Finance Committee.
May 29, 2025
As the Legislature works to complete its work on the state’s two-year budget, another deadline is looming. Legislators are required to pass a balanced budget before the end of the fiscal year—June 30, 2025. If they don’t meet that deadline, the state will begin a partial shutdown.
May 29, 2025
Registration has opened for the Empowering Physicians: A Night of Reflection and Engagement event, featuring best-selling author Elisabeth Rosenthal, MD.
May 29, 2025
The AMA is encouraging physicians to contact their U.S. senators and urge them to revise the reconciliation bill passed recently by the U.S. House of Representatives. While the bill includes language that would stabilize Medicare physician payments, it also threatens to cripple Medicaid and CHIP.