2007 Minnesota Statutes

256L.02 PROGRAM ADMINISTRATION.
    Subdivision 1. Purpose. The MinnesotaCare program is established to promote access to
appropriate health care services to assure healthy children and adults.
    Subd. 2. Commissioner's duties. The commissioner shall establish an office for the state
administration of this plan. The plan shall be used to provide covered health services for eligible
persons. Payment for these services shall be made to all eligible providers. The commissioner
shall adopt rules to administer the MinnesotaCare program. The commissioner shall establish
marketing efforts to encourage potentially eligible persons to receive information about the
program and about other medical care programs administered or supervised by the Department
of Human Services. A toll-free telephone number must be used to provide information about
medical programs and to promote access to the covered services.
    Subd. 3. Financial management. (a) The commissioner shall manage spending for the
MinnesotaCare program in a manner that maintains a minimum reserve. As part of each state
revenue and expenditure forecast, the commissioner must make an assessment of the expected
expenditures for the covered services for the remainder of the current biennium and for the
following biennium. The estimated expenditure, including the reserve, shall be compared to
an estimate of the revenues that will be available in the health care access fund. Based on this
comparison, and after consulting with the chairs of the house Ways and Means Committee and
the senate Finance Committee, and the Legislative Commission on Health Care Access, the
commissioner shall, as necessary, make the adjustments specified in paragraph (b) to ensure that
expenditures remain within the limits of available revenues for the remainder of the current
biennium and for the following biennium. The commissioner shall not hire additional staff using
appropriations from the health care access fund until the commissioner of finance makes a
determination that the adjustments implemented under paragraph (b) are sufficient to allow
MinnesotaCare expenditures to remain within the limits of available revenues for the remainder
of the current biennium and for the following biennium.
(b) The adjustments the commissioner shall use must be implemented in this order: first, stop
enrollment of single adults and households without children; second, upon 45 days' notice, stop
coverage of single adults and households without children already enrolled in the MinnesotaCare
program; third, upon 90 days' notice, decrease the premium subsidy amounts by ten percent for
families with gross annual income above 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines; fourth,
upon 90 days' notice, decrease the premium subsidy amounts by ten percent for families with
gross annual income at or below 200 percent; and fifth, require applicants to be uninsured for
at least six months prior to eligibility in the MinnesotaCare program. If these measures are
insufficient to limit the expenditures to the estimated amount of revenue, the commissioner shall
further limit enrollment or decrease premium subsidies.
    Subd. 4.[Repealed, 1Sp2001 c 9 art 2 s 76; 2002 c 277 s 31]
History: 1986 c 444; 1987 c 403 art 2 s 63; 1988 c 689 art 2 s 137; 1989 c 282 art 3 s
34; 1992 c 549 art 4 s 3,19; 1993 c 4 s 28; 1993 c 247 art 4 s 11; 1993 c 345 art 9 s 2; 1994
c 625 art 8 s 72; art 13 s 1; 1995 c 234 art 6 s 3; 1997 c 225 art 3 s 3; 1998 c 407 art 5 s 8,9;
1Sp2001 c 5 art 14 s 1