Minnesota Gives Non-White Patients Preferential Access to Life-Saving COVID Treatment

Minnesota says healthcare providers should provide non-white patients with preferential access to monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). {snip}

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) says in a document titled “Ethical Framework for Allocation of Monoclonal Antibodies during the COVID-19 Pandemic” that “race and ethnicity alone, apart from other underlying health conditions, may be considered in determining eligibility for mAbs [monoclonal antibodies].”

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Minnesota’s solution is to ration mAbs based on various health factors, each assigned a different score. {snip} Antibodies will be distributed based on these scores (highest numbers receiving treatment first) where supplies run low.

Here are the factors and their associated values:

• Being BIPOC (2 points)
• Age 65+ (2 points)
• BMI 35 kg/m² and higher (2 points)
• Diabetes mellitus (2 points)
• Chronic kidney disease (3 points)
• Heart disease in patients ages 55+ (2 points)
• Chronic respiratory disease in patients ages 55+ (3 points)
• Hypertension in patients age 55+ (1 point)
• Immunocompromised (3 points)
• Pregnancy (4 points)

Based on this scoring metric, if two pregnant women, one black and the other white, visited a hospital with limited mAbs supplies, the black woman would receive priority because her score would be six, but the white woman’s score would only be four.

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The state claims this policy is designed “to promote equity in access and address health disparities.”