The Minnesota Senate Health and Human Services Finance and Policy Committee has passed a supplemental budget bill focused on patient-friendly law changes and funding for critical health care initiatives like opioid abuse prevention and elder care protection.

“Last year, Republican priorities successfully stabilized Minnesota’s individual health insurance market, and the reforms in this bill build on that success,” said Senator Michelle Benson (R-Ham Lake), chair of the Health and Human Services Finance and Policy Committee. “We are putting patients first: families deserve complete information when they go to the doctor or pharmacist, better treatment and research for the scourge of opioid addiction, and confidence their loved ones will receive only the best care at long-term care facilities.”

The bill authorizes $2 million for the opioid prevention pilot program and project ECHO system at St. Gabriel’s in Little Falls so they can continue their groundbreaking work addressing opioid abuse, as well as $1 million for grants to community paramedic teams to help people break the cycle of addiction through opioid overdose follow-up programs.

The bill also includes key patient-first reforms that require health care providers to clearly post any hidden facility fees they charge, and lifts the pharmacy gag rule preventing pharmacists from telling customers when the cash price for a prescription is cheaper than the insured price. In addition, it gives pharmacies the freedom to synchronize prescription dates, so patients can avoid multiple trips to the pharmacy in a short period of time.

The legislation also includes a $3 million appropriation to help fund the Elder Care and Vulnerable Adult Protection Act, authored by Senator Karin Housley (R-St. Marys Point).

Other provisions in the bill include:

• A requirement that health insurance cover new 3D mammogram technology as preventative services for at-risk patients
• Authorization of a study to identify the prevalence of low-value health care services that provide little or no medical benefit to patients in order to weed out those services and reduce consumer costs
• The creation of a Health Policy Commission, which will bring together actuaries and experts in health care to produce unbiased, data-driven information on our health care marketplace and help us identify ways to lower costs
• Recapture of $14 million identified as unneeded by the Department of Human Services
• Appropriation for telemedicine treatment options for tuberculosis patients