February 24, 2022
The bill, authored by Rep. Cedrick Frazier, (DFL-New Hope), establishes payments of $1,500 to qualifying workers in fields such as healthcare, long-term care, EMS, public health, child care, schools, food service, retail, maintenance and security, public transit, and corrections.
The employees must have been employed for at least 120 hours between March 2020 and June 2021. They must also meet income requirements—for healthcare workers, incomes below $175,000 for a single person or $350,000 for a couple, and for non-healthcare workers, incomes below $85,000 for a single person or $185,000 for a couple.
In an earlier version of the bill the healthcare workers excluded physicians. While many physicians wouldn’t qualify because of the income limits, the exclusion also applied to residents and fellows in training. Frazier amended the bill to remove this exclusion. All healthcare workers are now included.
The Senate version of the bill, SF 2650, authored by Sen. Erin Murphy (DFL-St. Paul), is still awaiting a hearing in committee. While there is a commitment from both bodies to provide funding for the frontline worker payments, there is not yet agreement on how broad the definition of frontline worker should be or how much total money should be allocated to the payment pool.
March 6, 2025
A bill to improve maternal mental health services by requiring health plans to reimburse for services to provide comprehensive mental health services for pregnant and postpartum individuals was heard in the Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee this week.
March 6, 2025
A bill that would prohibit prior authorization (PA) for medications on certain cancer treatments has been introduced in the Senate.
March 6, 2025
Legislation that would increase outpatient Medical Assistance (MA) reimbursement rates to 100% of Medicare continues to move at the Capitol.