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publichealth.columbia.edu

Minnesota PMP mandate letters and reminder emails to prescribers

Also: Minnesota Prescription Monitoring Program letter trial (2021) · Minnesota PDMP reminder email trial (2024)

Minnesota's Prescription Monitoring Program, with the state's Management and Budget agency and university researchers, sent letters (March 2021) and later emails (2024) to clinicians telling them about the new legal requirement to check the PMP before prescribing opioids, or about the risks of co-prescribing. Both waves were randomized trials.

Years
2021–2025
Country
United States
Topic
Opioids
Asks people to
Start
Strategy
Policy pairedSimple instruction
Channel
Direct mail
Audience
Clinicians
2021: 12,000 Minnesota clinicians who co-prescribed opioids with benzodiazepines or gabapentinoids. 2024: 7,872 physicians and physician assistants with no PMP account, an inactive account, or no or infrequent searches.

Evidence

ExperimentalMixed

Letters (RCT, 12,000 co-prescribers, March 2021): letters stressing the new mandate raised PMP search rates by 4.5 points (4.0 with co-prescribing information added), lasting 8+ months; the risk-information-only letter did nothing; no letter changed co-prescribing (Sacarny 2023). Emails (RCT, 7,872 clinicians, 2024-2025): engagement was 11.8% in usual care; legal-requirement emails raised it 26.5 points and clinical-benefit emails 14.2 points, lasting 7+ months; guideline-discordant prescribing did not change (Sacarny 2025). The mandate framing outperformed the clinical framing both times.

Sponsor (who paid)

  • Minnesota Board of Pharmacy (Minnesota Prescription Monitoring Program) State local government, sender
  • Minnesota Management and Budget State local government, evaluation partner

Credits (who made it)

  • Adam Sacarny (Columbia), Mireille Jacobson (USC) and colleagues; supported by J-PAL Research evaluation, 2021-2025 source

Related campaigns

Sources

  1. Sacarny A, Avilova T, Powell D et al. A Randomized Trial Of Letters To Encourage Prescription Monitoring Program Use And Safe Opioid Prescribing. Health Aff 42(1):140-149 evaluation · 2023 · DOI 10.1377/hlthaff.2022.00859 · PMID 36623221
  2. Sacarny A, Avilova T, Williamson I, Merrick W, Jacobson M. PDMP Reminder Emails, Program Use, and Prescribing: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Health Forum 6(12):e255623 (NCT06443385) evaluation · 2025 · DOI 10.1001/jamahealthforum.2025.5623 · PMID 41632198
  3. New Randomized Trial Shows Simple Letters Promote Better-Informed Opioid Prescribing (Columbia Mailman School) news · 2023
  4. Email Reminders Boost Use of Database for Safe Prescribing (Columbia Mailman School) news · 2025

Research notes

Clinician-facing campaign. Discovered 2026-10-22 for #17 (clinician-campaigns pass). Fetched 2026-10-22: Columbia release on the letters names the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy (administers the PMP) and Minnesota Management and Budget as partners; the email release says only "Minnesota state government", so the email sender is assumed to be the same PMP (unverified). Topic note: these are about PMP use, not overdose messaging; prescribing did not change in either trial.

Record cases/mn-pmp-mandate-letters.json, updated 2026-10-22· Link to this campaign