Current Initiative · Minnesota-Based, Designed for Reuse
Healthcare Policy
Implementation Lab
H.R. 1 Medicaid Requirements
Building the beneficiary-facing and partner workflows that community health centers, community-based organizations, health systems, community health workers, and health plans will need before 2027 — before implementation breakdowns become coverage and access problems.
The Lab is in active development. We are currently building the engagement and design infrastructure and are looking for organizations and individuals who want to be part of shaping this work.
Much of the potential coverage loss is preventable.
- Up to 140,000 Minnesotans could lose Medical Assistance coverage under the federal changes.
- CBO estimates 70% of coverage losses associated with six-month renewals will result from paperwork, communication, or navigation problems — not because people are ineligible.
- Every failed notice, incomplete document, unclear exemption process, or broken organizational handoff can become a coverage gap, delayed treatment, medical debt, or uncompensated care.
The Lab is designed to find and address these breakdowns before they become embedded in the system.
Sources: Minnesota Department of Human Services and Congressional Budget Office. Estimates reflect current projections and may change as implementation guidance is finalized.
Policy changes on paper become interconnected operational changes in practice.
New community-engagement and six-month renewal requirements will create new outreach, documentation-support, exemption, verification, and coordination workflows across organizations that serve Medicaid beneficiaries. Each organization can prepare its own piece — but no single organization owns the full beneficiary experience or all of the handoffs where implementation can break down.
Waiting until new requirements go live increases the risk of duplicated work, inconsistent guidance, avoidable administrative burden, and eligible people losing coverage because the system is difficult to navigate. The Healthcare Policy Implementation Lab is designed to work through those problems now, while there is still time to test and refine.
In partnership with
What this Lab focuses on — and what it does not
In scope
The Lab focuses on the beneficiary-facing and partner workflows that happen before, around, and after county and state eligibility processes — the work done by CHCs, CBOs, health systems, CHWs, and health plans:
- Outreach and in-reach to people who may be affected
- Documentation support — helping beneficiaries gather and submit what is required
- Navigation — guiding people through eligibility and community-engagement processes
- Escalation pathways when something goes wrong or a person is at risk of losing coverage
- Handoffs and communication between CHCs, CBOs, health systems, CHWs, and health plans
- Documentation-support workflows and handoffs to official community-engagement verification processes
- Helping people understand and navigate official processes when they may qualify for an exemption, exclusion, or exception, including medical-frailty provisions
Out of scope
This phase focuses on beneficiary-facing workflows and organizational handoffs that interface with official state and county eligibility processes.
The Lab will not make eligibility or community-engagement compliance determinations, provide official government guidance, or direct changes to state or county policy or eligibility systems. Findings may identify workflow, communication, data, or system-interface needs for the appropriate agencies to consider.
Public-facing tools developed through the Lab will distinguish implementation support from official eligibility guidance and will direct users to authoritative state and federal sources.
Potential public-sector advisory role
The Lab will seek input from state, county, and other appropriate government representatives to help participating organizations understand official requirements, identify feasibility considerations, and clarify handoffs between beneficiary-facing organizations and government processes.
Any public-sector participation is subject to the agency's interest, availability, and approval. Participation should not be interpreted as agency sponsorship, endorsement, or approval of the Lab's findings or products.
One implementation and learning system across organizational boundaries
The Healthcare Policy Implementation Lab is a partnership with the Minnesota Association of Community Health Centers (MNACHC) and the Minnesota Community Health Worker Alliance (MN CHW Alliance). It is designed to bring together the organizations closest to beneficiaries to work on shared problems together:
- Community Health Centers (CHCs) and other safety-net providers
- Community-based organizations (CBOs) and community navigators
- Community health workers (CHWs)
- Health plans
- Technology and data partners
- Policy and implementation experts
- Medicaid beneficiaries and the people helping them navigate the system
The organizations listed represent the types of participants the Healthcare Policy Implementation Lab is designed to engage. No formal participation, partnership, sponsorship, or endorsement should be inferred unless explicitly stated.
What the Lab will do
- Map the end-to-end beneficiary experience and frontline-worker workflows across CHCs, CBOs, health systems, CHWs, and health plans.
- Identify risks in outreach, documentation support, navigation, escalation, handoffs, and cross-organization communication before implementation.
- Co-design future-state workflows, roles, handoffs, tools, and implementation supports for the organizations closest to beneficiaries.
- Test solutions in real operating environments with the people delivering and experiencing the work.
- Measure results, surface unintended consequences, and refine the model through rapid learning cycles.
- Produce practical tools, playbooks, training, technology and data requirements, and recommendations for sustainability and spread.
Target timeline
Partner outreach and readiness conversations are beginning now. The goal is to form the initial implementation cohort and begin discovery in fall 2026, subject to sufficient funding and participant commitments.
The in-person implementation lab and rapid-cycle testing schedule will be established with the selected organizations. Testing and refinement are expected to continue into the 2027 implementation period.
Specific dates will be shared as funding, participating organizations, and readiness commitments are confirmed.
We are building this now — and looking for people who want to be part of it.
The Lab is in the engagement and design phase. If you work in or alongside the communities and organizations that will be affected by these changes — or if you have expertise, relationships, or resources to contribute — we want to hear from you.
Funder
Foundations, health plans, or other funders interested in supporting the shared, cross-organizational implementation infrastructure this work requires.
Explore funding the Lab →Interested
Not sure how you fit but want to stay connected as the Healthcare Policy Implementation Lab develops? We would still like to hear from you.
Stay connected →Interested in funding the Lab?
Foundations, health plans, and other funders make it possible to build the shared implementation infrastructure this work requires. Learn what funding supports, what funders receive, and the principles that govern participation.
Explore Funding the Lab →Help build the implementation capacity Minnesota will need for 2027 and beyond.
Whether you want to participate, advise, fund, or simply stay connected as this work develops — reach out. We are in the building phase and the right people at the table now will shape what gets built.