Evidence status: CURRENT STATEWIDE PMP RECORD + HISTORICAL MEDICAID QUALITY-IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM. Minnesota’s Prescription Monitoring Program remains current. The separate Opioid Prescribing Improvement Program (OPIP) officially ended December 31, 2024; its final report, prescribing data, guidelines, and archived program materials remain relevant historical and policy evidence but should not be described as an active program.

PMP review for chronic opioid treatment

Beginning in 2021, Minnesota law requires a prescriber or authorized delegate to access the Prescription Monitoring Program before an initial Schedule II-IV opiate prescription and at least once every three months for patients receiving an opiate for treatment of chronic pain, subject to statutory exceptions.

Important PMP exceptions

The statute includes exceptions for circumstances such as palliative/hospice care, cancer-related pain, short prescriptions of five days or less without refill, certain established provider relationships, defined postsurgical prescribing, inpatient hospital care, and directly administered medication.

Intractable-pain protection

The PMP statute expressly states that it is not intended to limit or interfere with legitimate controlled-substance prescribing for pain and protects prescribers acting under the intractable-pain statute.

Opioid Prescribing Improvement Program

Minnesota’s Department of Human Services Opioid Prescribing Improvement Program created statewide prescribing protocols, provider education, quality metrics, and improvement tools for Minnesota Health Care Programs providers. OPIP officially ended December 31, 2024. DHS continues to preserve the program’s outcomes, final report, opioid prescribing data, and guideline materials, which remain useful for historical comparison and policy analysis.

Guideline status

Minnesota’s Opioid Prescribing Guidelines are clinical guidance, not the source of the statutory intractable-pain agreement or workers’ compensation written contract. They should be classified separately from binding statutes and rules.

Primary sources

• Minn. Stat. §152.126 — Prescription Monitoring Program
• Minnesota DHS — Opioid Prescribing Improvement Program
• Minnesota Opioid Prescribing Guidelines

Reviewed: October 5, 2026.

Evidence boundary: PMP duties and Medicaid quality-improvement protocols are separate legal and policy layers from Contract for Care.