March 1 Meeting Minutes Abbreviated

PNHP-Minnesota Chapter Meeting
March 1, 2009
Strommen Building, St. Paul, Minnesota

1. In attendance: Morrie Hodges, Gillian Schivone, Erica Weiss, Kip Sullivan, Amanda Rudelt, Jon White, Jennifer Hines, Sarah Kesler, Lynn Kelley, Dave Mair, Stuart Hanson, Jim Letts, Jack Garland, Kyle Mairose, Paul Pentel, Barbara Qualley, Ann Settgast, Elizabeth Frost

2. MN Medicine AD – will be published March 8
a. 204 current signers on our chapter resolution in support of HR 676
b. Goal of 500 by year’s end – takes 2 minutes @ www.pnhpminnsota.org – please commit to signing up ONE other person to DOUBLE the size of the list immediately!

3. State legislative update for the MN Health Act (SF 118/HF 135)
a. Successfully passed in 2 senate committee hearings earlier this year (Health and Commerce Committees) – Elizabeth and Ann reported
b. Informational hearing in the house (Health Committee) on 2/25/09 – Morrie and Lynn provided feedback about the event; bill was tabled for the next session (no vote taken).
c. PNHP members met with 13 targeted legislators through this process – THANK YOU – these efforts were fruitful and significant.

d. What is next?
i. Personal meetings with your state senator and representative are critically valuable in this process – MD opinions are highly valued – opinions of constituent MDs, even more so. Our goal for the next session should be to speak with all state legislators personally – please begin NOW by arranging a meeting with your legislator. Whether your senator and rep are already supportive or not, the meetings must be held. If already supportive, help provide your legislator with useful information he/she can use to make the case for the MHA when challenged.

ii. Goals of personal meetings with your legislators:
1. Share rationale of SP from a physician perspective
2. Educate re: MD support for SP – cite the Annals 4/08 survey and the MN Medicine 2/07 survey
3. Address questions/concerns of the legislator with your follow-up using evidence (www.pnhp.org)
4. Feel free to contact us before your meetings for background we may have on your particular legislator (eg. info from previous meetings) or for help in answering their questions.


4. Federal legislative update (HR 676) –
a. Eizabeth will draft a letter from our chapter to President Obama – we will send copies to MN’s 10 legislators in the US Congress.
b. Rep. Betty McCollum – Jon White agreed to write her to request a meeting. Jim Letts will write again. Gillian is also a constituent and would like to attend. Mark Thomas, PNHP member, will call. Once a meeting is set, we can recruit other PNHP members to accompany. i. Our goals with her:
1. Get a meeting! Ideal timing: Easter Recess April 6-17
2. Request she sign-on to HR 676
3. Request that SP advocates be present to testify at all upcoming hearings on national healthcare reform legislation
4. Sarah Kesler suggested writing an open letter if we do not receive a favorable response soon. This is a good idea. c. Rep. Tim Walz – has been receptive to our efforts, but has not co-signed HR 676. Lynn Kelley (along with Glen Peterson and Rick Kvam) will continue to work with him. d. Rep. Keith Ellison – co-signer on HR 676. We need to continue to thank him for his support. We will be meeting with him again in April. e. Rep. Jim Oberstar – has verbally pledged to co-sign in this session during our December meeting. We are still waiting his actual signature and are in active communication with his staffers in MN and DC.

5. Dr. Oliver Fein (PNHP President) visit to MN – we are aiming for June 18-20 a. Potential events
i. Grand Rounds at U of M – Paul Pentel has already preliminarily secured this venue for
Thursday, June 18 at noon
ii. Grand Rounds at ANW – Morrie Hodges will investigate this
possibility for Friday the 19th
iii. Sarah Kesler will arrange an HCMC event if ANW does not
come through
iv. We will also aim for an AMSA event with medical students during this visit – Gillian,
Kyle, and Erica can help with this. PNHP will provide food for any student event.
v. Next chapter-wide meeting/event will be scheduled in conjunction with the visit
vi. Media coverage will be very important

6. Miscellaneous –
a. Amanda Rudelt asked if our chapter is on Facebook yet. We are not. Sarah Kesler agreed to take on this project. Ann has sent her the logo.
b. Other medical professionals: Stuart Hanson inquired about other groups (eg. nurses, therapists, etc).
i. Brief discussion ensued re: nurse organizing around SP. Barbara Qualley provided some
feedback. The MN Nurse’s Association formally endorses the MHA, but has not made it
their central issue, unlike the CA Nurse’s Association.
c. Press releases – these often come from the national office and are very good. We need to make use of them. We revisited our press/media contact list. Currently Gillian, Jim, Elizabeth, Kip, Dave, Ann, Glen, and Susan H are assigned to contacts. We agreed from now going forward, that press releases will be promptly distributed by us to our respective contacts. Kip agreed to take on a couple unassigned contacts (the Rochester Post Bulletin and the St. Cloud Times. Elizabeth will send a reminder email when this happens.

7. Upcoming events
a. SD 38 health care forum (Eagan Community Center) 3/3/09 at 7pm – David Mair is speaking. Please attend in support.
b. Cable TV show called A Public Health Journal, hosted by Ed Ehlinger. Will feature the MHA 3/4/09 at 11:30am. Kip Sullivan may be available to be the guest.
c. SD 41 DFL convention (Edina) with Kip Sullivan 3/7/09 at 10am – Lynn Kelley volunteered to be the MD speaker.
d. Kip is speaking on 3/12 to SD 60 in Columbia Heights – would like an MD speaker. Ann is available if no one else is free.
e. MN Academy of Family Physicians Spring Refresher booth – April 16-17. Thank you to Laurel Gamm for arranging! This event will be attended by several hundred providers. We hope to garner many signatures.
i. Lynn Kelley, Susan Hasti, Jim Letts, Laurel Gamm, and Elizabeth will staff the booth
ii. If you are a family medicine doc reading these minutes and can help with staffing the
booth, please contact Elizabeth!! (pnhpminnesota@gmail.com) We want to have two
physicians present at all times.

8. Ideas for further speaking venues a. United Family Medicine Program – Jim Letts will follow up b. DFL speaker series in April/May – Elizabeth has this in the works w/ Anne Queenan