Paul Thissen: Innovation in Action

MN’s Closer

Dodge County DFL Senior Luncheon and Forum

Rep. Thissen speaking at the Dodge Co. DFL Senior Luncheon & Forum on April 18, 2009.

Legislation Encourages Communities to Prepare for Age-Wave

News Release, April 15, 2009

The Minnesota House of Representatives passed the Communities for a Lifetime Act today (HF 936). The bill, authored by State Rep. Paul Thissen, is an important step toward making sure communities all across Minnesota are prepared for the coming age wave.

“Minnesota is facing a fundamental shift, our population is becoming older and it is happening fast,” said Thissen. “That has implications for all aspects of our society from health care and housing to transportation to worklife and recreation.

The Communities for a Lifetime legislation is designed to encourage the evolution of communities as places that welcome and support senior residents, recognizing them as assets to our state.”

The Communities for a Lifetime program is voluntary, similar to the Minnesota Star City program. Partnerships of small cities, towns and counties who meet certain “senior-friendly” criteria would be designated a community for a lifetime.

Criteria include opportunities to contribute time and talents through volunteer community service; to participate in the paid workforce, with flexibility of hours and scheduling; to “age in place” and choose among a variety of affordable, accessible housing options, to access quality long-term care in the setting of the senior’s own choice; and community-wide mobility and access public transportation.

“The essence of the Communities for a Lifetime program is that it is flexible, local and designed to engage all citizens in thinking about the future of their community,” said Thissen. “There is a real urgency to moving forward in this direction.”

The UpTake Interviews Rep. Thissen

Thissen – Motivation

Thissen – Goals

Thissen – Fundraising

Thissen – Surprise

Thissen – Fair Taxes

Thissen – Difference

Thissen – Economy

Thissen – DFL Values

Thissen – Veterans

Thissen – Science

Thissen – Energy

Thissen – Healthcare

Thissen – Pawlenty’s Fatal Flaw

Thissen – Campaign Trends

Thissen – Negative Campaining

Thissen – Endorsement

Paul Thissen for Governor

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Obama’s Plan is Good for Minnesota’s Health

Albert Lea Tribune, April 3, 2009

In his first weekly radio address, President Obama stated an ambitious goal: “To lower health care costs, cut medical errors and improve care, we’ll computerize the nation’s health records in five years, saving billions of dollars in health care costs and countless lives.”

The president made a down payment on that promise in the recently passed American Recovery and Restoration Act. The bill includes $31 billion to help clinics, hospitals and other medical providers install electronic medical record systems. That is really good news for Minnesota, which stands to draw in as much as $2 billion to create a 21st century health care system.

Minnesota is well-positioned to take advantage of the new federal initiative because of work we have done in the Minnesota Legislature over the last several years. We invested tens of millions of dollars in loans and grants to help hospitals and clinics purchase and install medical records systems. We insisted that those systems be interoperable, meaning they need to be able to speak to each other.

We moved forward aggressively and asked that all claims and payments be processed in a uniform manner. As a result, doctors will no longer need to employ one person to complete forms for Blue Cross and another to complete forms for Health Partners. We estimate savings of up to $70 million a year from the reforms.

We also reformed the rules under which information is shared among clinics, balancing the efficiencies of electronic exchange of information with the new privacy and security requirements that are necessary in an Internet world.

I am currently working on moving the Health Information Technology and Infrastructure Act through the Legislature. The bill is designed to get the most bang for our electronic health record buck; ensure that different electronic record systems can talk to each other; and focus our resources where they are most needed.

Passage of the legislation will take us a large step closer to our vision of a safer, more efficient and lower cost health care system for Minnesota.