MMA News
Pawlenty Uses Veto Power to Cut Health Care
The 2009 Legislative session ended May 18 with Gov. Tim Pawlenty using his veto pen to balance the state’s budget primarily by tearing into the health care safety net and delaying payments to schools.
During the final days of the session, Pawlenty signed a budget bill passed by the DFL-controlled Legislature that allocated about $10.5 billion for health and human services over the next two years, an increase of about $850 million, or 4 percent a year, above current spending. However, because the governor and the Legislature could not reach an agreement on how to resolve the state’s $4.6 billion budget deficit, Pawlenty informed lawmakers that he planned to implement a go-it-alone strategy and balance the budget with line-item vetoes and unilateral cuts known as unallotments.
Pawlenty’s Move
The governor used his line-item veto power to eliminate the General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) program, which serves about 35,000 low-income Minnesotans, effective July 1, 2010. Eliminating the program is expected to save the state about $381 million.
Pawlenty also is expected to cut an additional $1 billion from the state budget after July 1 through his unallotment authority. In one of his earlier proposals, he indicated that he could cut another $250 million in health care spending through unallotment.
Could Have Been Worse for Physicians
The MMA supported resolving the state’s budget shortfall with a combination of program cuts and new revenues. However, the governor vowed to veto any new taxes.
As the budget battle wore on, the MMA supported the budget passed by the House and Senate over Pawlenty’s budget proposals.
The House and Senate budget minimized cuts to doctors by protecting primary care reimbursement rates but cutting payments to specialty physicians by 5 percent.
It also aligned well with the MMA’s top two priorities of protecting eligibility levels for safety net programs and preventing raids on the Health Care Access Fund.
In his original budget, the governor proposed more than $1 billion in reduced health care spending, with the biggest cut coming from eliminating GAMC and MinnesotaCare coverage for about 115,000 Minnesotans.
Pawlenty proposed eliminating the Health Care Access Fund and transferring the revenues from the provider tax to the state’s general fund. He also proposed a 3 percent reimbursement cut for all physicians. In addition, the governor wanted to cut benefits such as physical therapy and dental care to enrollees in safety-net programs.
Pawlenty modified his original plan to cut Minnesotans from state health care rolls in order to accept federal stimulus dollars, which the state could only receive if it maintained the number of people covered by state safety net programs.
The Challenge Ahead
Since some of the cuts don’t take effect immediately, health care providers may have some time to try to reverse them. For instance, the MMA will work to prevent the loss of coverage for enrollees in GAMC.
“We will need to work with the governor and lawmakers prior to and during the 2010 session to try to stop plans to dismantle Minnesota’s health care safety net,” says Dave Renner, the MMA’s director of state and federal legislation.
Attend Minnesota’s e-Health Summit
The Minnesota e-Health Initiative is holding its annual summit on Friday, June 25, in Brooklyn Park.
The focus of this year’s summit is successfully implementing electronic health records (EHRs) and health information technology in the current economic climate.
The summit will showcase national and state providers who have implemented EHRs, focusing on the challenges they faced and the strategies they used to overcome them. The summit will discuss Minnesota’s mandate to achieve interoperable EHRs by 2015 and provide advice to providers about how to optimize the incentives that are available as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
A pre-summit workshop on grants, loans, incentives, and reimbursement, “The Road to Effective Use of EHRs in Minnesota,” will be held June 24 from 1-5 p.m.
The e-Health Summit and workshop will take place from 8:15 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Northland Inn in Brooklyn Park. The two-day summit qualifies as continuing medical education and costs $260.
The deadline for registration with lodging is Wednesday, June 3. The deadline for registration without lodging is Friday, June 19. Visit www.health.state.mn.us/e-health to learn more and to register.
Health Plans Offer Help for Submitting Claims
Minnesota’s largest health plans are offering providers a free Web-based tool for electronically submitting claims for services. State law requires providers to conduct these transactions electronically starting July 15.
Providers may register for the service starting May 15 and will be able to electronically submit claims to some payers starting June 1. To find out how to sign up, go to www.mnhealthplans.org/tools/links.cfm.
More details about Minnesota’s electronic claim submission requirements can be found online at www.health.state.mn.us/auc.