Star Tribune
Insured Minnesotans’ health care cost $581 more per person last year
Rising drug costs drove a $581 per capita increase in total medical spending for Minnesotans with private insurance last year — a trend that put a strain on household incomes and is likely to push premiums higher.
That 7% increase in 2022 followed a 12% increase in 2021, according to Thursday’s annual report by MN Community Measurement. Total spending includes payments by insurers and out-of-pocket by patients.
Both numbers reflect a bounce back from 2020, when spending declined. That year, the pandemic compelled people to delay surgeries and avoid routine care at doctor’ offices. But the numbers also reflect a worsening long-term trend, because spending increased more on average over the arc of the pandemic than in prior years.
Yearly spending per privately insured patient in Minnesota rose from $5,904 in 2014 to $8,832 last year, the report showed.
Some increase is inevitable, but the trajectory suggests that clinicians aren’t preventing chronic diseases such as diabetes and then managing them cost effectively once they occur, said Julie Sonier, president of MN Community Measurement, a nonprofit that seeks to improve health care by publishing clinical data.
“There is a ton of room for improvement in both of these areas,” she said. “We shouldn’t just sit back and say, ‘Well, you know, health care costs grow 5 to 6 percent a year.’ I mean, they do, but that’s faster than the economy historically grows.”
Pharmaceutical drug costs increased 17% in 2022, when a new class of weight-loss drugs emerged.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota saw a 63% increase in spending on this class of drugs in the 12-month period ending in September. Hennepin Healthcare pulled coverage of those drugs for weight-loss purposes from its worker health plans for 2024 after spending millions more than expected on them in 2023.
The data showed increases in emergency room visits and outpatient surgeries, but declines in primary care visits and hospital admissions.
Hospitals have been reporting problems discharging patients from inpatient beds, because there are no openings for them in nursing homes or rehab centers. Sonier said the decline in admissions is probably a result of this discharge problem and the shortage of nurses and other caregivers that has reduced hospital capacity.
“What if somebody went to the emergency department and there was no bed in the hospital to which they could be admitted?” she said.
The report exposed how different clinics have widely varying prices for the same procedures. Private insurers paid some medical groups $348 for common chest X-rays in 2022 while they paid others $49.
It also showed variations in spending by the clinics at which patients received primary care. Yearly spending per patient topped out at $14,832 for those who received primary care from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, compared to $7,332 for patients of Bloomington-based HealthPartners.
Mayo has historically been the most expensive in this annual comparison, but its leaders have said it is deceptive because of the way the study assigns patients to clinics. Those assigned to Mayo include people who are receiving primary care in Rochester while also receiving specialized treatments and tests for complex and rare diseases.
Mayo isn’t alone on the high-cost spectrum. More than 20 other medical groups had per-patient costs that MN Community Measurement listed as above the norm.
Sonier said providers seem to be ordering fewer unnecessary procedures than in past years, so much of the variation is in how much they are charging for the necessary ones. The study holds primary care clinics responsible for the cost of care they provide to their patients, but also the cost of care provided by specialists.
“The idea is that primary care is serving as kind of a quarterback and coordinating care for people,” she said.
Effective diabetes management, for example, can delay the need for expensive insulin injections or disabling conditions that require surgeries or costly therapies.
Two people from Minnetonka were killed late Friday afternoon when their GMC Suburban ran a stop sign and was struck by a GMC Yukon headed north on Hwy. 169 west of Palisade, Minn.
According to the State Patrol, Marlo Dean Baldwin, 92, and Elizabeth Jane Baldwin, 61, were dead at the scene. The driver of the Suburban, a 61-year-old Minnetonka man, was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.
The Suburban, pulling a trailer, was headed east on Grove Street/County Rd. 3 at about 5:15 p.m. when it failed to stop at Hwy. 169 and was struck by the northbound Yukon. The Yukon then struck two westbound vehicles stopped at the intersection.
Four people from Zimmerman, Minn., in the Yukon, including the driver, were taken to HCMC with life-threatening injuries, while two passengers were treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Three girls in the Yukon ranged in age from 11 to 15.
The drivers of the two vehicles struck by the Yukon were not injured, the State Patrol said. Road conditions were dry at the time of the accident, and alcohol was not believed to have been a factor. All involved in the accident were wearing a seat belt except for Elizabeth Baldwin.
Hill City police and the Aitkin County Sheriff’s Office assisted at the scene.
Amid the cacophony and chaos of the pregame preparation before a recent Minnetonka High School football game, an exceptional group of six girls is gathered together among the school’s deep and talented cheerleading and dance teams.
The cheerleaders, a national championship-winning program of 40 girls, dot the track around the football field. As the clock ticks down to kickoff and their night of choreographed routines begins, the six girls, proudly wearing Minnetonka blue T-shirts emblazoned with “Skippers Nation” and shaking shiny pom-poms, swirl around the track, bristling with excited energy.
Their circumstances are no different from any of the other cheerleaders with one notable exception: The girls on this team have special needs.
They’re members of the Minnetonka Sparklers, a squad of cheerleaders made up solely of girls with special needs.
A football game at Minnetonka High School is an elaborate production. The Skippers’ recent homecoming victory over Shakopee brought an announced crowd of 8,145. And that is just paying attendees; it doesn’t include school staffers, coaches, dance team, marching band, concession workers, media members and others going about their business attached to the game.
The Sparklers program, now in its 12th season, was the brainchild of Marcy Adams, a former Minnetonka cheerleader who initiated the program in her senior year of high school. Adams has been coach of the team since its inception, staying on through her tenure as a cheerleader at the University of Minnesota.
She started the program after experiencing the Unified Sports program at Minnetonka. The unified sports movement at high schools brings together student-athletes with cognitive or physical disabilities and athletes with no disabilities to foster relationships, understanding and compassion through athletics. Many Minnesota schools offer unified sports.
“I grew up in a household that valued students with special needs and valued inclusion,” Adams said. “I saw a need to give to those students. At Minnetonka, we have a strong Unified program, and this was a great opportunity to build relationships and offer mentorship opportunities.”
Elite runners are in a league of their own.
To get a sense of how far ahead elite runners are compared to the rest of us, the Minnesota Star Tribune took a look at how their times compare to the average marathon participant.
The 2022 Twin Cities Marathon men’s winner was Japanese competitor Yuya Yoshida, who ran the marathon in a time of 2 hours, 11 minutes and 28 seconds, for an average speed of 11.96 mph. He averaged 5 minutes and 2 seconds per mile.
That’s more than twice the speed of the average competitor across both the men’s and women’s categories, of 5.89 mph, according to race results site Mtec. The average participant finished in 4 hours, 26 minutes and 56 seconds. That comes out to an average time of 10 minutes and 11 seconds per mile.
And taking it to the most extreme, the fastest-ever marathon runner, Kelvin Kiptum of Kenya, finished the 2023 Chicago Marathon in 2 hours and 35 seconds, for an average pace of about 13 mph. Kiptum averaged 4 minutes and 36 seconds per mile.
Here is a graphic showing these differences in average marathon speed.
