2014 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.

(a) 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 participating entities under contract with the commissioner. 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.

(b) A toll-free telephone number and Web site 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 of representatives Ways and Means Committee and the senate Finance Committee, 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 management and budget 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]

Subd. 5.Federal approval.

(a) The commissioner of human services shall seek federal approval to implement the MinnesotaCare program under this chapter as a basic health program. In any agreement with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to operate MinnesotaCare as a basic health program, the commissioner shall seek to include procedures to ensure that federal funding is predictable, stable, and sufficient to sustain ongoing operation of MinnesotaCare. These procedures must address issues related to the timing of federal payments, payment reconciliation, enrollee risk adjustment, and minimization of state financial risk. The commissioner shall consult with the commissioner of management and budget, when developing the proposal for establishing MinnesotaCare as a basic health program to be submitted to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

(b) The commissioner of human services, in consultation with the commissioner of management and budget, shall work with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to establish a process for reconciliation and adjustment of federal payments that balances state and federal liability over time. The commissioner of human services shall request that the secretary of health and human services hold the state, and enrollees, harmless in the reconciliation process for the first three years, to allow the state to develop a statistically valid methodology for predicting enrollment trends and their net effect on federal payments.

Subd. 6.Coordination with MNsure.

MinnesotaCare shall be considered a public health care program for purposes of chapter 62V.

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; 2009 c 101 art 2 s 109; 1Sp2011 c 9 art 6 s 71; 2013 c 108 art 1 s 33-35,67