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Physicians warn cutting addiction‑medicine fellowship funding would end Minnesota’s only specialized training program
Summary
Hennepin Healthcare and University of Minnesota addiction medicine leaders testified the A‑4 eliminations would terminate fellowship positions and reduce the state's capacity to train addiction specialists.
Physician leaders from Hennepin Healthcare and the University of Minnesota told the Senate Higher Education Committee that proposed eliminations in the A‑4 amendment would end specialty addiction‑medicine training that they said is essential to treating substance use disorder across the state.
Doctor Gavin Bart, director of the Division of Addiction Medicine at Hennepin Healthcare, testified the program "is the only 1 in the state of Minnesota," and said eliminating the family medicine and addiction medicine training line items would not just reduce scope but "will eliminate the program." Bart said trainees from the program serve communities statewide and that without ongoing funding "we won't be able to provide those trainees to serve the communities in Hibbing or Park Rapids or Lakeville or Minneapolis or St. Paul or St. Cloud or anywhere else in the state."
Doctor Sheila Becker, an addiction psychiatrist at the University of Minnesota and program director for the Minnesota Addiction Medicine Fellowship, said the fellowship has helped double the number of physicians trained in addiction medicine and that program funding supports stipends, faculty, accreditation and program administration. Becker said the fellowship does not receive CMS residency funding and that state dollars are critical: "This funding that we have had over the past biennium has allowed us to double the number of physicians trained in addiction and to serve Minnesota." She urged the committee to reinstate the base biennial appropriation of $540,000.
Why it matters: both clinicians emphasized that trained addiction medicine specialists provide direct patient care, oversee treatment transitions and serve as teachers and leaders who expand local capacity to treat substance use disorders. Eliminating the funding, they said, would immediately reduce the number of specialists available to Minnesota communities.
Committee action: the committee heard testimony but took no vote; staff and witnesses said final budget decisions and negotiations with the House and governor will determine whether the line items are restored.
