Vaccination News Home Page            Scandals            subscribe Vaccination NewsLetter

-------------------------

MN LEGISLATIVE REPORT #8

MAY 5, 2003

-------------------------

HOUSE INFO: 651-296-2146

SENATE INFO: 651-296-0504

GOVERNOR: 612-296-3391

LEGISLATURE:

http://www.leg.state.mn.us/

* HEALTH DEPARTMENT ACCESS TO MEDICAL RECORDS - no sign of elimination yet

* MINNESOTACARE PROVIDER TAX - no elimination, but several proposed changes

* HEALTH CARE RATIONING ADVANCED - House and Senate HHS bills (HHS = Health and Human Services)

----------------------------------------------------

CITIZENS' COUNCIL ON HEALTH CARE IS SUPPORTED BY THE

DONATIONS OF CITIZENS. PLEASE CONTRIBUTE GENEROUSLY.

- feel free to use our next newsletter's response

card or our online contribution service. Thank you! https://secure.lexi.net/cchc/donate.php3

----------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------------

ONLY TWO WEEKS LEFT: State Collection of Private Medical Records

-----------------------------------------------------------------

House File 297

Senate File 795

----------------

The bills that would repeal the state's data collection authority have thus far been stopped by the Senate and the Governor's office. Despite withdrawing the rule, the law still allows such data collection without patient consent. Please contact your legislators and the Governor IMMEDIATELY and ask them to protect your private medical records. There are only 2 weeks left before the session ends. The issue is not dead. Call the above numbers or email your legislators at: sen.firstname.lastname@senate.mn or rep.firstname.lastname@house.mn

(ex: rep.fran.bradley@house.mn)

--------------------------------------------------------

Provider Tax on Health Care Stays, but Changes Proposed

--------------------------------------------------------

House File 437

Senate File 1532

-----------------

Health care practitioners and facilities would be newly required to pay the provider tax on revenues received from Medicaid, GAMC and MinnesotaCare if the SENATE HHS language becomes state law. Senator Linda Berglin (D-Mpls) informed CCHC that the federal government has never approved the state's request to exempt such revenues from the provider tax. So if her language becomes law, she says that the state will directly refund such payments to providers who pay it.

In the HOUSE HHS bill, the Health Care Access Fund is discontinued and the provider tax is rolled into the General Fund. This is the first step toward recognizing that subsidized health programs should be funded by the general public, not the sick and the injured. Future steps should then eliminate the tax altogether. The Senate bill does not eliminate the Health Care Access Fund, but does shift some of the provider tax funds to the General Fund.

Rep. Fran Bradley (R-Rochester) has withdrawn his bill to repeal the provider tax in exchange for higher taxes on tobacco. But there's always a chance that he will try to amend it onto the tax bill.

-------------------------------------------------------

Health Care Rationing/Surveillance in HHS Bills

-------------------------------------------------------

House File 437

Senate File 1532

-----------------

In the dark of the night, while Minnesota citizens slept, the Health and Human Services bills were passed. The House on Friday morning, May 2 at 4:00 a.m. The Senate on Saturday morning, May 3, around 1:30 a.m. A conference committee of House and Senate members must now be formed to iron out the differences in the bills. Between them, the following four (4) concerns emerge as most concerning:

HEALTH CARE RATIONING:

* The Senate Bill would implement the Oregon Health Plan in Minnesota. Care would be rationed using a long list of items that will not be covered or must be pre-authorized, including removal of objects from a child's nose or ears, certain liver transplants, tonsillectomies, mononucleosis, a type of meningitis, and health conditions for which someone decides there is less than a 5 percent survival rate. The list is 217 items long and includes over 1,400 diagnosis codes (ICD-9 codes).

CCHC's count of 1,418 diagnoses was used by Sen. Sean Neinow (R-

Cambridge) to support his amendment to require state employees to follow the same rationing system. The amendment failed. But for public program patients, hospitals or HMOs could make the 5 percent calculation as money gets tight or they tire of taking caring for certain patients! The state shouldn't be authorized to ration care.

* The House bill requires mental health treatment to be "evidence-based." This concept, which is sweeping across the country, is meant to establish centralized decision-making and legitimize health care rationing.

* The House and Senate bill require brand name prescriptions to be prior authorized even if the doctor specifically writes that the brand name prescription is to be dispensed. Furthermore, the state will develop a "preferred list" of drugs for the Medicaid program through use of a new state committee that is to be developed.

STATE HEALTH SURVEILLANCE:

* House bill authorizes broad monitoring of health status within communities. Health officials testified that birth certificates and other data will be used to monitor the health status of women and children across the state. And local public health officials must evaluate "effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal and population-based health services."

* In the House bill, a new state reporting system in the health department is created. Twenty-seven (27) hospital events (medical errors, adverse events or criminal acts) must be reported. This is rooted in a federal initiative to create a national health quality monitoring system. CCHC managed to get two amendments attached: 1) no names or other identifying data of patients, practitioners, or employees can be disclosed, and 2) the health department cannot set up "best practices" in medical care. It cannot select from or between various competing medical practices.

SLIPPERY SLOPE, SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS, SUBSIDIES & GOV'T GROWTH:

* SLIPPERY SLOPE: Both bills allow pharmacists to prescribe ("authorize" in the Senate) certain over-the-counter medication for the Medicaid population including insulin. This slippery slope initiative may lead to more prescribing authority in the future. It also discourages coordinated care for patients.

* SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS: Both bill require that those taking applications for child care services ask for a social security number. This violates federal law unless the applicant is told that providing the number is not mandatory.

* FORCED SUBSIDIES: The House bill in 2005 will implement prescription drug DISCOUNT program for senior citizens that will force drug companies to subsidized the state's cost of the program. This is a bill by Rep. Fran Bradley (R-Rochester). Drug companies will be required to make payments to the state. This program initiated a lawsuit in Maine.

In the meantime, a prescription drug ASSISTANCE program, authored by Rep. Lynda Boudreau (R-Faribault) will be implemented. This program will simply inform citizens about the various free and reduced drug programs offered by drug companies. Its success should ensure that Rep. Bradley's initiative, if made part of the conference committee bill, will not go into effect.

* GOVERNMENT GROWTH: In the House bill, the health department is required to establish statewide  public health goals, and the Commissioner of Health can assume control over the public health activities in local communities. This is the local public health grants part of the bill.

**************************************************************

A free-market resource for designing the future of health care

**************************************************************

Citizens' Council on Health Care

1954 University Ave.W., Suite 8

St. Paul, MN  55104

651-646-8935 phone

651-646-0100 fax

http://www.cchconline.org

**************************

Vaccination News Home Page

ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE.  THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.