State Initiatives
The bills below are currently in-progress in the Minnesota Legislature
and need your MN Senator’s (1) and MN Representative’s (1) support!
Each bill’s section includes a brief description of Why it’s important, the bill’s Status, and What you can do to help get that bill passed. Next to the title of each piece of legislation you’ll find links to its status page (one for the House of Representatives’ version and one for the Senate’s version) on the MN Legislature’s website so that you can read up on where that bill is at in the policy-making process.
Bills in the MN House of Representatives and MN Senate can have up to 35 and 5 total authors, respectively, so we recommend that you prioritize reaching out to your legislators about bills they have yet to co-sponsor.
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If you don't vote in the state of Minnesota, check out what’s happening in your state currently to address pharmacy-related issues such as PBM abuse, provider status for pharmacists, test-to-treat legislation, equal payment for medical services, etc.
To find out who represents you in our state and federal governments, visit the MN Legislature’s website and enter the address where you’re registered to vote.
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Click here to access the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA)’s 2024 State Wins for Community Pharmacy to see the positive gains that have been made across state governments this year (notably, you’ll see that our state of Minnesota is NOT among them… we’ve got work to do!).
Stay up to date with MyBills
Did you know that you can also “subscribe” to email updates from your legislators to keep tabs on their legislative activity and community outreach?
To subscribe, head to the MN Legislature’s website and locate your legislator by clicking on “Members” under either the House of Representatives or Senate. Once you locate their profile, select “Click to subscribe” next to “Email updates” (located to the right of the legislator’s headshot).
If you’d like to stay up to date on the trajectory of these and other bills being debated in the Minnesota State Legislature, click here to set up a free MyBills account.
MyBills allows you to track House and Senate bills by bill number and topic. When you log in, your bills of interst will be listed along with information about recent or upcoming actions. Please note that MyBills does NOT send email notifications when actions are taken on bills; rather, you must login to your account to see these updates.
The 2023-2024 MN Legislative Session has ended.
Four of the five provisions that were of highest priority to community-based pharmacies like us were officially passed after being included in Omnibus legislation that Governor Walz signed into law on May 24th, including:
Coverage for health services provided by pharmacists | HF2503 & SF2459
Expanding access to HIV prevention and treatment | HF2466 & SF2320
Maintain pharmacy administered vaccine & testing authorities | HF1197 & SF1176
Medical Assistance reimbursement rate update | HF3902 & SF5123
Unfortunately, the following short-term solution to chronic under-reimbursement to pharmacies from private health insurers (Managed Care Organizations or MCOs) covering the cost of care for a large majority of Medicaid patients (~85%) was NOT able to be passed this year. Next session alongside our friends and fellow pharmacy advocates (including you, our patients!), we’ll be pursing the same or a long-term solution (see HF5028 | SF4843 below) to address this issue that has and continues to contribute significantly to the financial ruin of our state’s independent pharmacies.
Directed pharmacy dispensing payment program | HF4916 & SF5123
Bills of interest
Establish reimbursement rate requirement for Prepaid Medical Assistance Program (PMAP) | HF5028 & SF4843 | New!
Why it’s important
Managed Care Organizations (MCOs)—such as HealthPartners and UCare—are currently responsible for managing the care of the 85% of Minnesotan Medicaid patients on a Prepaid Health Plan (i.e., who are part of PMAP instead of having “straight Medical Assistance,” where the state covers the cost of their care directly). Operating independently on our state’s behalf, these entities have taken the opportunity to increase their profit margins by chronically underpaying healthcare providers, including pharmacies (a big reason why more and more providers literally cannot afford to take care of Medicaid patients). Recently introduced in the MN Senate, this bill would build upon the proposed “band-aid” solution of a directed pharmacy dispensing payment program (HF4916 | SF5123; see below) by establishing a permanent requirement that MCOs reimburse pharmacies like us at the state-determined dispensing fee rate.
The passing of this legislation would require that MCOs reimburse pharmacies at the dispensing fee rate determined by the Cost of Dispensing Survey (CODS) that is now required by law to be completed every 3 years. It would replace the proposed directed pharmacy dispensing payment program (HF4916 | SF5123), which, if passed, will function as a temporary solution to keep struggling pharmacies open until then.
Status as of May 17th, 2024
HF5028 was introduced by Representative Harder (R—17B) on 3/18/24 and immediately referred to the Health Finance and Policy Committee. It currently has no additional authors and a hearing has yet to be scheduled.
SF4843 was introduced by Senator Gruenhagen (R—17) on 3/11/24 and was immediately referred to the Health and Human Services Committee. It currently has no additional authors and a hearing has yet to be scheduled.
Click on the following links to view the current status of these bills—including any additional authors that have been added since the date listed above—on the MN Legislature’s official website: HF5028 | SF4843
What you can do
This legislation will be crucial in ensuring that, moving forward, MCOs managing care for patients on the state’s behalf are not allowed to underpay pharmacy providers. Similar legislation has passed with great success in other states; however, at this time, we ask that you prioritize reaching out to your MN state legislators about the 5 bills listed below, as this legislation is not expected to move forward until next year. We’ll be working hard with our partners over the course of the summer and winter to make sure we’re ready to hit the ground running at the beginning of the 2025 MN Legislative session.
Directed pharmacy dispensing payment program | HF4916 & SF5123 | NOT PASSED
Why it’s important
After decades of chronically low or complete lack of reimbursement from insurance companies (really, the PBMs that represent them) for the service of dispensing prescription medications, independent pharmacies like us are, unsurprisingly, in a financially dire place. Unfortunately, our state has seen some of the worst pharmacy closures in the nation recently: 24 closed their doors over the course of last year and we’ve already lost 4 in 2024. This proposed legislation would create a directed pharmacy dispensing program that would give the pharmacies that are struggling the hardest and serve our most vulnerable community members—mainly those in rural and underserved urban areas—a flat-rate addition to the measly dispensing fee paid out by prepaid health plans (PMAPs, or the private health plans like HealthPartners and UCare that manage coverage for approximately 85% of Minnesota residents on Medicaid). It’s a lifeline that many pharmacies will go bankrupt without and has proved successful in other states.
The passing of this legislation would add an additional flat-rate fee (the amount of which is currently being investigated) for the filling of each prescription for the majority of Medicaid patients. Eligible pharmacies must (1) NOT be owned by a PBM and (2) be a non-chain or a chain of 12 or less pharmacies. Chains of 13+ pharmacies must be located in a HRSA-eligible area in order to qualify (i.e., caring for underserved patients per criteria set by the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA).
Status as of May 30th, 2024
HF4916 and SF5123 failed to pass in the 2023-24 MN Legislative Session. The same or similar legislation is expected to be pursued next session.