National Nurses United

MINNESOTA M innesota Nurses Association members celebrated passage in late May of a bill to provide criti- cal public oversight of proposed hospital mergers like the one currently being pursued by executives at Sanford Health and M Health Fairview that would create one of the largest health care systems in the country, even larger than Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Last fall, Sanford Health out of South Dakota and M Health Fairview out of Min- nesota announced their plans to merge the two health care giants. The move would put control of the new health care conglomerate under the control of Sanford executive lead- ership in South Dakota, the health chain that recently paid out a $49.5 million golden parachute to its disgraced former CEO after he spread medical disinformation. Since then, MNA nurses helped lead a coalition of farmers, patients, medical students, and fel- low workers to call for stronger public protections to ensure any proposed corpo- rate hospital merger takes into account the public interest. With their actions in our hospitals and at the state Capitol, hospital executives have made clear that their actions and priorities require greater public scrutiny. For too long, hospital CEOs have closed and consolidated hospitals and cut wages and protections for workers with a focus on their own bottom line with no public oversight. This bill will provide critical accountability to oppose the further corporatization of our health care system. In January, Minnesota's Attorney Gen- eral Keith Ellison held four public forums across the state of Minnesota. Nurses attended each of these forums to express their grave concerns over the proposed merger and how it could negatively impact patient care across the state as well as the nursing profession. At one of the community meetings, retired MNA member Jean Forman, RN, delivered remarks from two Bemidji nurses who wanted to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from Sanford Health, sharing, "When Sanford took over in Bemidji, the general feel went from friendly, hometown care to big business and profits first, patients second. Nurses here are continually asked to do more with less, all while the perks, pay, and benefits of being a nurse in this region are being stripped away." At another meeting in Worthington, Minn., several nurses spoke, including Deb Meyer, RN, who shared about her hospital being bought by Sanford in 2008 and how that affected patient care. "I think we all need to remember who the most important person is in this merger and that is the patient," she reminded the audience. In February, MNA released a report on the proposed merger of Sanford Health and M Health Fairview into a massive new health care chain. The 24-page report includes a review of scholarly studies on the effects of health care mergers on patients, workers and communities, as well as a review of the corporate policies pushed by hospital executives at Sanford and Fairview, including closures of facilities and units with their focus on the bottom line. MNA members continued to show up at the Capitol throughout the legislative session to testify in support of the legislation and were excited to see it through to passage. The new legislation will give the attorney general and state health officials the author- ity to review proposed health care mergers in the state based on a new set of public interest provisions focused on patient care and accessibility, as well as impacts to work- ers. Among other positive measures, the bill restricts hospital executives from personally profiting from a merger and protects union rights and contracts for workers in the event of a hospital merger. It also extends the moratorium on HMO conversions that was set to expire in July, and ensures that an out- of-state entity is not able to control the University of Minnesota hospital. —Lauren Nielsen 6 N A T I O N A L N U R S E W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G J U LY | A U G U S T | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 3 NEWS BRIEFS RNs fight to hold corporate hospital executives accountable to patients, workers, communities

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