ST. PAUL, Minn. (KFGO) – A proposed merger between Twin Cities-based Fairview Health Services and Sioux Falls-based Sanford Health is facing growing opposition from organized labor, and leaders of the University of Minnesota and its medical school.
At a joint legislative hearing in St. Paul Monday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison urged the two non-profit health care providers to hold off on a planned March 31 merger to allow more time for legislative review.
Democratic Representative Zach Stephenson of Coon Rapids, who chairs the House Commerce, Finance and Policy Committee, told the CEO’s of both medical networks, “we have to ensure that Minnesotans’ access to medical care is not restricted, and costs are not driven up. Looking at comparable transactions around the country, that’s not at all a given.”
Sanford Health CEO Bill Gassen told lawmakers, “hospitals continue to close. They are not sustainable on their own. Being part of a system, they have more of a chance.”
Ellison has dedicated 12 staff members to conduct an ongoing review of anti-trust rules and other potential public impacts related to the proposed merger.
