Task force strives to foster better future of Minnesota health care by focusing on U of M
The state task force created to determine the future of the University of Minnesota Medical School, its programs and its teaching hospital is due to submit its final report to the governor by early February.
Gov. Tim Walz created the task force in August after talks of a merger between the university’s partner Fairview Health and Sioux Falls-based Sanford Health. That merger has since been called off, and the U of M and Fairview are negotiating what a future together looks like.
Former Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm is serving as the task force’s chairperson, charged with making recommendations about the future of health at the U to the governor before the start of the 2024 legislative session. Malcolm told MPR News the group is pleased negotiations between the university and hospital are picking up the pace.
“It wasn’t the task force’s job to tell them what their partnership would be. That’s not our expertise. But we have certainly come to appreciate, by looking at other academic health models around the country, the importance of those kinds of partnerships,” Malcolm said.
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Regardless of its future with Fairview, Malcolm is urging the university to “be much more expansive and deliberate in creating deeper partnerships with other health systems around the state.”
“And we think that those kinds of partnerships can help to strengthen the U’s academic health programs, which we all rely on,” Malcolm explained. “To try to just be more intentional about how this whole ecosystem works together, really, is one of our core recommendations.”
Discussions between the task force and the university have been productive, according to Malcolm, and they’re listening to the advice to “clarify their ask and make sure that that is best aligned with what the state actually needs.”
Cost, however, may be a barrier to progress. The task force is tentatively recommending the Board of Regents and Legislature rubberstamp an $80 million annual appropriation; this would fund new medical discovery teams, research, reaching underserved communities, rural health care and workforce development. However, Malcolm says the final report will only include recommendations with the most consensus.
While serving on the task force, Malcolm says one of her revelations was how complex the cost of funding health care education is.
“[That] has become a harder and harder thing to figure out over the last decades that we, the federal government and the state government, used to directly support health professions education more than they do now. Now that support is really reliant on profits that come from the delivery of health care services,” Malcolm said.
The U is unique with six health science schools of its own, Malcolm said.
“Yes, it’s the medical school, but it’s also the nursing school, the public health school, the pharmacy school, the dental school, the veterinary school. And we think there’s great magic there in that holistic approach that all of those programs can bring in that we really urge the U to focus on maximizing.”