Legislative Session Starts; MMA to Focus on 5 Major Issues
February 19, 2026
State lawmakers returned to St. Paul on February 17 for the second half of the 2025-2026 biennium.
May 11, 2023
Registration is now open for bestselling author, champion of the patient-physician relationship, and a prominent voice in medicine, Abraham Verghese, MD, MACP, who is keynoting the MMA’s Empowering Physicians Conference on September 21 at Windows on Minnesota, located at the Marquette Hotel in downtown Minneapolis.
The event, which runs from 1 to 8 p.m., will also feature an opening session with Minnesota Health Commissioner Brooke Cunningham, MD, PhD, a panel discussion on “Examining the Dynamics of Physician Practice: Employment, Ownership and Private Investment,” and a skills-building workshop.
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Abraham Verghese, MD, MACP |
"We’re putting together a great day of insightful discussions and helpful content for all physicians and physicians-in-training,” says MMA President Will Nicholson, MD. “And we’re honored to be joined by Dr. Verghese. Given his past work and brand, new novel, it’s sure to be an awesome event.”
Verghese’s memoirs and novels on medical themes have sold millions of copies, topped bestseller lists, and earned major movie deals. His warmth and vision, as well as his world-class gifts as a storyteller, make him a powerful speaker both to healthcare professionals and the patient in all of us.
In addition to being a deep thinker about the future of healthcare, Verghese is a successful author with great popular appeal. His novel, Cutting for Stone, was a runaway hit, topping the New York Times bestseller list for more than two years and earning a movie deal.
His first book, My Own Country, a memoir about treating AIDS in rural Tennessee, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for 1994 and was made into a movie. His second book, The Tennis Partner, was a New York Times notable book and a national bestseller. His latest novel, The Covenant of Water, came out May 2 and is getting rave reviews.
Verghese has served on the faculty of many universities, including the University of Texas Health Sciences Center, San Antonio, where he was the founding director of the Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics. He has served on the Board of Directors of the American Board of Internal Medicine; is a Master of the American College of Physicians, and was elected to the Association of American Physicians, as well as the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
In 2016, Verghese received the National Humanities Medal from President Obama, “for reminding us that the patient is the center of the medical enterprise.”
For more information and to register, click here.
February 19, 2026
State lawmakers returned to St. Paul on February 17 for the second half of the 2025-2026 biennium.
February 19, 2026
On the second day of the legislative session, MMA leadership was already advocating for one of its top priorities - minimizing the harm of federal changes to Medical Assistance (MA).
February 19, 2026
Legislation to prohibit the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in prior authorization requirements was heard in the House Commerce Finance and Policy Committee on February 19.