Minnesotans worried about what the Sanford Health and North Memorial Health merger could mean for their local hospitals are getting a chance to speak up in person next week, as Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office hosts a two-hour community forum in Minneapolis.
The meeting, set for Tuesday evening, will run from 6 to 8 p.m. Ellison himself will not attend because of a prior commitment, but he is sending senior staff from his office, and representatives from both health systems are expected to be on hand to field questions and hear community concerns face to face.
Meeting Details
According to the Minnesota Attorney General's Office, the forum is scheduled for Tuesday, July 7, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Minneapolis. The exact address will not be posted publicly; it will be emailed about 48 hours in advance to people who register.
Anyone who wants to speak at the meeting has to complete two steps: register to attend and sign up to speak. Both are handled through Eventbrite. The City of Maple Grove has also circulated the announcement on its Facebook.
Merger Snapshot
Sanford Health and North Memorial announced on May 8 that they had signed a definitive agreement to combine into a single nonprofit health system, with a plan that includes about $600 million in investments to modernize and expand services at the Robbinsdale and Maple Grove hospitals, according to Sanford Health.
Labor organizations have not exactly been cheering from the sidelines. Consolidation, they warn, can squeeze staffing levels and limit patient access. The Service Employees International Union and the Minnesota Nurses Association have both raised red flags in coverage by CBS Minnesota. Ellison’s public forums are designed to capture those kinds of concerns as part of the state’s review.
Legal Review And Public Input
Minnesota law gives the Attorney General power to scrutinize certain health care deals under the state’s health care entity transaction law. The rules are laid out in Minnesota Statutes, chapter 145D.
Under that statute, the Attorney General can examine how a proposed transaction might affect patients, the health care workforce, access to services and competition. If a deal is found to violate charities law or antitrust law, the office can ask a court to block it or even unwind it. Public testimony at forums like this one, along with written comments, feeds directly into that legal and policy analysis.
How To Weigh In
The Attorney General’s website directs residents who want to attend to RSVP through Eventbrite and notes that written comments can be submitted through the office’s Community Input Form or by phone, according to the Minnesota Attorney General's Office.
Metro area residents can call (651) 296-3353, while callers from greater Minnesota can use (800) 657-3787 to ask questions or share input by phone. Officials reiterate that the meeting location will be sent by email to registered attendees about 48 hours before the event.
With hospital consolidation already a hot topic in Minnesota after some high-profile past deals, this forum is likely to draw a mix of union leaders, community advocates and health system executives, all taking turns at the same microphone. For more background on how Ellison’s office approaches hospital mergers and public hearings, MPR News has additional context.
