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Health
Estelle Timar-Wilcox

Fairview CEO says current partnership with UMN too expensive

Three people sit at a table during a panel meeting
Minnesota Department of Health chair Jan Malcolm listens during a Task Force on Academic Health meeting in the Minnesota Senate Building in St. Paul on Tuesday.
Ben Hovland | MPR News

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The University of Minnesota is looking ahead at its plans for its medical school, now that Fairview Health Services has indicated that it wants to end the organizations’ current partnership.  

Fairview notified the university on Monday that it does not plan to extend its current partnership. Under that agreement, the two organizations run M Health Fairview. The partnership has been a major source of funding for the university’s medical school.  

Fairview CEO James Hereford spoke to the Governor’s Task Force on Academic Health at the University of Minnesota on Tuesday. In his presentation, he said the split came down to finances.  

“It’s not that we don’t want the University of Minnesota to be successful, it’s not that we don’t want to have a relationship. The problem is, we have been a source of investment into the university, and we simply cannot afford it at the levels that we’ve been able to support it at in the past,” Hereford said.  

Fairview has been seeing less income over the last few years as it’s increased its funding to the university. Hereford said that’s not sustainable.   

Task force members said they want to know how much money Fairview is willing to put towards that future partnership — and how much the university will have to make up from other sources.  

University of Minnesota Interim President Jeff Ettinger said the university will be asking the 2024 State Legislature for funding. 

“In the near term, the critical priority is going to be to build stability for the clinical enterprises that funds the academic operations of our medical school,” Ettinger said.  

The task force — made up of doctors, university administrators and state officials — has until January to make recommendations to the governor about where the university can go from here. 

The current partnership — and the M Health Fairview clinics and hospitals — will run through the end of 2026.