Opioid Prescribing Improvement Program

Governor Dayton and the Minnesota Legislature established the Opioid Prescribing Improvement Program (OPIP) in 2015 to reduce opioid dependency and misuse in Minnesota related to opioid prescriptions. The Opioid Prescribing Work Group met from 2015 through 2021 to develop program elements and provide recommendations to the state. The program includes:

Statewide opioid prescribing guidelines for three pain phases, Acute, Post-acute, and Chronic pain.
Annual opioid prescribing reports to clinicians who serve Minnesotans on public health care programs
A quality improvement program for prescribers who serve Minnesotans on public health care programs and whose prescribing behavior is outside of community standards
Provider education resources for providers about prescribing opioids for pain management.

OPIP excludes patients diagnosed with cancer or who receive hospice or palliative care services.

Goals and expectations

The goal of the Opioid Prescribing Improvement Program is to work collaboratively with the Minnesota medical community to:

Reduce inappropriate or excessive opioid prescribing for acute and post-acute pain
Reduce inappropriate variation in opioid prescribing for acute and post-acute pain
Support patients who remain on chronic opioid analgesic therapy through patient-centered, multimodal treatment approaches, improved monitoring of safety and harm reduction strategies.

Program sunset

The Minnesota Legislature passed language in 2023 to sunset the OPIP program. Language from 2023 Session Law SF2934 Article 6, section 6 states, “the commissioner of human services shall recommend criteria to provide for a sunset of the opioid prescribing improvement program. The opioid prescribing improvement program shall expire when the recommended criteria developed according to this section are met, or on December 31, 2024, whichever is sooner. The Commissioner’s full recommendation is available in the Sunset Recommendations for the OPIP (PDF) legislative report.