Health exchange data
During the 2013 Session, bills were introduced to establish the Minnesota Insurance Marketplace – the Minnesota health care exchange intended to implement aspects of the Affordable Care Act in the state of Minnesota. The bills contained data and Open Meeting Law provisions relevant to the operation of the Marketplace.
Data Classification Prior to Session
Prior to Session, the Minnesota Insurance Marketplace did not exist, and there was no classification in Minnesota law for its data.
MNCOGI position
MNCOGI sought to make the open meeting provisions of the bills compatible with the Open Meeting Law, and sought to ensure that the data provisions of the various bills comported with good data practices under Minnesota law.
Bills
SF 1 was introduced in the House, and HF 5 was introduced in the Senate.
Procedural history
Once the bills were introduced, MNCOGI reviewed them, and offered testimony about deficiencies in their treatment of data (both access to public data, and individual data privacy), and weaknesses in their open meeting provisions. The open meeting provisions of HF 5, for instance, contained exceptions to the Open Meeting law that purported to close entire board meetings (rather than portions of meetings) for the discussion of trade secret information, personnel negotiations, and contract negotiations.
Outcome
The final version of the Minnesota Insurance Marketplace legislation contained provisions that included greater specificity regarding data sharing, data accessibility, and warnings regarding the submission of private data by individuals. The number of exceptions to the Open Meeting law were also greatly reduced.
Documents
• HF-5
• SF-1
• HF 5 House Research bill summary
• Agenda for Civil Law Committee – Feb 1, 2013
• HF 5 Second Engrossment
• H0005A41 (amendment to HF 5)
• H0005A43 (amendment to HF 5)
• H0005A44 (amendment to HF 5)
• H0005A45 (amendment to HF 5)
• H0005A47 (amendment to HF 5)
• H0005A48 (amendment to HF 5)
• H0005A49 (amendment to HF 5)
• H0005A50 (amendment to HF 5)
• H0005A51 (amendment to HF 5)