A Minnesota Healthcare Reform Framework
Goals: Lower costs, expand access, improve outcomes, and increase transparency—without reducing quality or choice.
1. Price Transparency & Consumer Choice
Problem: Patients don’t know prices until after care is delivered.
Reforms:
- Require real-time, upfront pricing for all non-emergency services.
- Mandate cash prices posted alongside insurance prices.
- Create a statewide healthcare price comparison portal for hospitals, clinics, imaging, and labs.
- Ban “facility fees” for routine outpatient visits.
Impact: Competition lowers prices; patients can shop and plan care.
2. Expand Direct Primary Care (DPC)
Problem: Primary care is expensive, fragmented, and insurance-driven.
Reforms:
- Explicitly protect Direct Primary Care in statute (not insurance).
- Allow HSA dollars to be used for DPC memberships.
- Encourage employer-based DPC for public employees.
- Reduce regulatory burdens on small clinics.
Impact: Lower costs, better access, fewer ER visits.
3. Fix MinnesotaCare & Public Programs
Problem: Rising costs with limited accountability.
Reforms:
- Shift MinnesotaCare toward outcomes-based contracts.
- Require fraud prevention audits for Medicaid providers and contractors.
- Incentivize preventative care and chronic disease management.
- Allow private plans to compete within MinnesotaCare.
Impact: Better care at lower taxpayer cost.
4. Increase Provider Supply
Problem: Provider shortages drive wait times and costs.
Reforms:
- Streamline licensing reciprocity for doctors, nurses, and mental health professionals.
- Expand scope-of-practice for nurse practitioners and physician assistants.
- Fast-track credentialing for rural and underserved areas.
- Encourage telehealth across state lines.
Impact: More providers = lower costs and faster access.
5. Reduce Administrative Waste
Problem: Paperwork and bureaucracy inflate healthcare costs.
Reforms:
- Standardize billing and prior authorization rules statewide.
- Limit prior authorization delays for routine care.
- Cap administrative spending in publicly funded programs.
- Require plain-language explanations of benefits.
Impact: Less overhead, more care dollars to patients.
6. Mental Health & Addiction Reform
Problem: Emergency rooms are acting as mental health facilities.
Reforms:
- Expand community-based crisis response teams.
- Increase mental health bed capacity.
- Integrate mental health services into primary care.
- Enforce parity laws so insurers treat mental health equally.
Impact: Better outcomes, lower incarceration and ER costs.
7. Rural Healthcare Stabilization
Problem: Rural hospitals and clinics are closing.
Reforms:
- Create a rural hospital stabilization fund tied to performance.
- Expand telehealth reimbursement parity.
- Allow innovative care models (mobile clinics, shared services).
- Reduce certificate-of-need barriers.
Impact: Keeps care local while controlling costs.
Core Principles
- Patients first, not systems
- Transparency over bureaucracy
- Competition over monopoly
- Outcomes over spending
- Fraud prevention and accountability