The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) finally approve Minnesota’s State Plan Amendment (SPA) for a Directed Pharmacy Payment Program (DPPP), which MNIndys helped passed in the Minnesota Legislature during the 2025 session. The program was intended to be implemented on July 1st, 2025, but has faced delays.

In a 59-18 vote largely along party lines, the Assembly passed the Democratic-sponsored bill to rein in pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, a measure supporters say would level the playing field for community pharmacies and give patients more choice in where they get their drugs.

Excessive refilling is common practice at U.S. mail-order pharmacies, a Journal analysis of Medicare prescription data found, flooding the homes of seniors with extra drugs. Too-frequent refills by all U.S. pharmacies cost Medicare and patients $3 billion between 2021 and 2023, the analysis found.