WILLMAR, MINN. Thursday, July 2, 2020 $1.OO

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By Linda Vanderwerflvanderwerf@wctrib.com

WIllMar

Clinics in the Carris Health system are now operating at 80% to 90% of their pre-pandemic capacity.

Some of the changes made to prepare for the arrival of COVID-19 are still in place, and the clinics could pivot quickly back to readiness if the situation requires it, said Bryan Lydick, executive director of ambulatory care for Carris Health.

Front doors are open with patients screened at the door. They will be asked a list of questions about symptoms and

have their temperatures taken.

People with symptoms of COVID-19 use a separate entrance and are kept away from other patients, Lydick said.

Masks are required in the clinics. If people don’t

have their own, the staff will give them one.

“We strongly support public masking,” Lydick said.

Inside the buildings in Willmar, New London, Benson, Litchfield and Redwood Falls, patients are likely to notice

cleaning and disinfecting taking place more frequently than before.

Some chairs have been removed from waiting areas to allow for social distancing.

In March, clinics started postponing appointments not seen as medically necessary. The clinics geared up to work with the broader medical community in the area on pandemic preparedness.

“We never shut off the medically necessary appointments,” Lydick said. “We kept patients safe but needed to keep them healthy also.”

By Sarah MearhoffForum News Service

ST. PAUL — On what activists anticipated to be a celebratory first day that Minnesota’s long-awaited insulin affordability law took effect, pharmaceutical companies have moved to strike it down in court.

Saturday, June 27 was the three-year anniversary of the death of 26-year-old Alec Smith, a Minne-sotan with diabetes who rationed his expensive medication and died as a result. Four days later on Wednes-day, July 1, dubbed by Gov. Tim Walz as Alec Smith Day, Smith’s name-sake insulin affordability law went into effect after more than a year of heated negotiations between state lawmakers.

At a Wednesday news conference, Walz said “for years and years” the public heard stories of Minnesotans priced out of their vital insulin.

“The horrific stories, Alec Smith and so many others, of rationing insulin or going into diabetic shock because they couldn’t get it. Those days now end here in Minnesota,” Walz said.

But on the eve of the law taking effect, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of Ameri-ca (PhRMA) filed a lawsuit against the state arguing that the law, also known as House File 3100, violates the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.

James Stansel, PhRMA’s executive vice president and general counsel, said in a Tuesday news release that HF 3100 “overlooks common sense solutions to help patients afford their insulin,” and that manufac-turers already have their own insu-lin affordability coupons and plans in place.

Minnesotans relying on insulin testified to the Legislature many times over the past year saying that despite coupons, existing afford-ability programs and health insur-ance, they still could not afford their insulin, which at times cost them hundreds of dollars for a lim-ited supply. For insulin-dependent diabetics, insulin is not an optional medication — without it, they can

Pharmaceutical companies file lawsuit as Minn. insulin bill takes effect

By Paul John ScottForum News Service

ROCHESTER, Minn. — In their last news conference before the holiday weekend, state health officials threaded a needle.

We know you’re going to go out and meet up with friends, they seemed to say. Please try to be smart about it.

“It’s so important that we take advantage of the opportunity to be outside and celebrating with family and friends,” said state commissioner of health Jan Malcolm in a Wednesday call with the press. “We really want to reinforce the important mes-sage for all of us to stay vigi-lant about COVID-19 during this holiday weekend. We know how

tempting it is to feel like we can go back to normal, especially when we’re celebrating. But we need to be in a new normal.”

Malcolm encouraged Minne-sotans to celebrate with people in their own household, pref-erentially outdoors, avoiding close congregation in crowds, and if possible save the larger get-togethers for Zoom and the like.

“If you do gather together,” Malcolm added, “keep your group size limited, keep in mind that gathering outdoors is such a better environment in terms of the spread of COVID-19. But even outdoors it’s important to still practice social distancing and to wear masks when you’re in close proximity.”

Malcolm also advised young people to consider that they may not get really sick from COVID-19, but they could easily pass it to someone who will.

“If you’re in bars and restau-rants,” she said, “spread out, wear masks, carry hand sani-tizer.”

In other news Wednesday, Malcolm stated that the health department has recommended to the governor that he adopt a statewide mask ordinance, and said the governor is giving it serious consideration.

“We do recommend that it be a requirement at the statewide level,” Malcolm said. “He is very seriously considering our recommendation.”

The state health department reported 426 cases and 4 deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday, July 1.

Cases were spread across the state, apportioned to counties largely by population. Outliers included Blue Earth County with 18 cases, and Rice County with 14 cases.

Blue Earth County is home to

Mankato, site of a recent out-break in bars and restaurants, while Rice County is home to Faribault, where two inmates died of COVID-19 last week. The state now says that 300 recent cases are associated with bars.

One death each was reported in St. Louis and Ramsey coun-ties on Wednesday, and two in Dakota County. All were resi-dents of long-term care. The total number of lives lost in the state to the virus is now 1,445.

The state reported 11,886 tests on Wednesday. While the nearly 12,000 daily tests is high compared to one month ago, state health officials are hoping to see daily testing participation rise substantially.

On Monday Gov. Tim Walz and state health commission-er Jan Malcolm were joined by officials from Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota as they announced that the state

reached its moonshot goal: the lab capacity to conduct 20,000 tests a day.

The state now encourages all Minnesotans who believe they have reason for concern to seek testing, with or with-out symptoms. This is running into a conflict with insurers, as reports have emerged that large payers are not uniformly authorizing tests for asymp-tomatic persons.

Getting 20,000 Minnesotans to take them up on that invi-tation during the same 24 hour period has remained elusive.

With just 125 people in the ICU for COVID-19 — a drop of nine from Tuesday — the hard metrics of health care utili-zation continues its downward trend. An additional 135 Minne-sotans are hospitalized with the virus in non-ICU settings.Have a story idea? FNS Health Correspondent

Paul John Scott can be reached at pscott@forumcomm.com, or (507) 285-7726.

Minnesota health officials: Celebrate the Fourth safely

CARRIS HEALTH CLINICS IN FULL OPERATION

Safety measures in place and system can quickly return to COVID-19 plans if needed

Erica dischino / West Central TribunePeople walk into the main Carris Health Clinic on Wednesday morning in Willmar.

INSULIN: Page A2CARRIS: Page A2

lydick

State Health Dept. wants Gov. Walz to require masks