April 21, 2022
The Senate Finance Committee passed the Senate version of the omnibus Health and Human Services bill on April 19. The health portion of the omnibus bill, SF 4198, was merged with the human services omnibus bill, SF 4410, and passed to the general orders for a future floor vote.
The bill is much smaller than the House version, both in length and the amount of money it spends. One particular provision the MMA supports is a section of the bill intended to protect patients who need ongoing opioids to treat chronic pain. The bill states that prescribers cannot be disciplined solely for prescribing doses of opioids that exceed an arbitrary threshold for morphine milligram equivalent. This is intended to protect patients from forced tapering of their medications when it is not in their best interest.
The chief author of the bill, Sen. Greg Clausen (DFL-Apple Valley), spoke against an amendment to remove protections from civil or criminal actions solely for exceeding these thresholds, arguing that stakeholders, including the MMA, have worked on this bill for two years and concern with this language has never surfaced.
Sen. Melisa López Franzen (DFL-Edina) agreed with Clausen that meddling with the language is potentially dangerous for some patients in Minnesota who rely on access to prescriptions to control chronic pain. She argued that the Finance Committee is not equipped to address this issue.
Despite DFL objections, the amendment was adopted with supporters arguing that many problems in the opioid crisis derived from physicians overprescribing. Sen. Julie Rosen (R-Fairmont) went on to state that there needs to be accountability in this section of the bill.
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.