Attorney General Ellison statement on status of negotiations between University of Minnesota, Fairview, and University of Minnesota Physicians

On January 26, I announced that the University of Minnesota, Fairview Health Services, and University of Minnesota Physicians had reached a mediation agreement to secure core funding for the University of Minnesota Medical School, continue high-quality patient care for 1.2 million people a year, and ensure continued world-class research and medical education in Minnesota, all for the next 10 years. This agreement came after a year of strategic facilitation and mediation. 

All parties involved praised the agreement. University of Minnesota President Rebecca Cunningham called it a “win-win-win” in public testimony before the Higher Education committees of both houses of the Minnesota Legislature earlier this year.

The mediation agreement reached in January provided the framework for three distinct definitive agreements: an academic affiliation agreement between the University of Minnesota and Fairview; a master agreement between the University of Minnesota Physicians and the University of Minnesota; and an amendment to the stability agreement that Fairview and University of Minnesota Physicians reached in November 2025. All parties agreed to complete their definitive bilaterial agreements by March 31, 2026.

I am pleased that Fairview and University of Minnesota Physicians have finalized and are currently implementing the bilateral stability agreement they reached last November, which prevented the damaging consequences of a partnership unwind that would have included loss of funding to the Medical School, disruption in patient care, and harms to physician retention and recruitment. Separately, Fairview and the University of Minnesota are working to finalize their academic affiliation agreement in the coming days to allow their important joint efforts in medical education and research to go forward.

The University of Minnesota and University of Minnesota Physicians have not met the March 31 deadline for their definitive agreement. This lack of a bilateral agreement between the University and the University of Minnesota Physicians does not have to harm the provision of healthcare to patients, the recruitment and retention of physicians, or the Medical School, provided that all parties agree to work collaboratively and refrain from public criticism or attacks that in the past have had a destabilizing effect on patients, physicians, and funders. I encourage all parties to refrain from such attacks and instead address their concerns directly with those affected in a diplomatic and respectful way, given the enduring importance of these relationships.

More than a year ago, I announced the start of the strategic facilitation process to chart a sustainable path for the future of academic and clinical medicine and community health in Minnesota. Before then and since, University of Minnesota leadership and their team of consultants have pursued a variety of different governance and new control measures over their relationship with Fairview and the University of Minnesota Physicians. These have included proposals to: buy back the Medical Center and other assets from Fairview; engineer a new partnership with Essentia Health to run a combined Essentia and Fairview system; unwind the relationship with Fairview and seek entirely new and different partnerships; and remove University of Minnesota Physicians as the faculty practice group for the Medical School. During this period, key Medical School leaders have left the University. Minnesotans can assess for themselves the underlying factors that have led to the University's actions, which now includes the lack of this definitive agreement within the agreed deadline.

We have work to do for Minnesotans. I call on this partnership to focus now on the many healthcare challenges before Minnesota. The risks to the provision and stability of healthcare in Minnesota are many: we face growing numbers of Minnesotans without healthcare coverage and health systems losing Medicaid funding because of a bill promoted, passed, and signed by Congress and the President; the ripple effects of the dissolution of insurer UCare; the well-recognized challenges facing Hennepin Healthcare and hospitals in rural Minnesota; and the continued need for better services for Minnesotans struggling with mental health and addiction.

Let's get to work.

The Official Website of Office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison

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