2000 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 in accordance with section 
 16A.76.  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 requirements described in 
 section 16A.76, 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.    Funding for pregnant women and children under 
 age two.  For fiscal years beginning on or after July 1, 1999, 
 the state cost of health care services provided to MinnesotaCare 
 enrollees who are pregnant women or children under age two shall 
 be paid out of the general fund rather than the health care 
 access fund.  If the commissioner of finance decides to pay for 
 these costs using a source other than the general fund, the 
 commissioner shall include the change as a budget initiative in 
 the biennial or supplemental budget, and shall not change the 
 funding source through a forecast modification. 

    HIST: 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