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Fairview Health Services and Sanford Health announced their plans to merge last month, and we can expect their paid talkers to provide the corporate ooze of benevolence. They’ll tell us the merger is a chance to offer higher consolidation of care, improve quality of care and coordination of care, and save health care dollars. The two companies have our community’s public health at heart.
Only a gullible fool would buy into such nonsense. Positive rhetoric does not outweigh hard facts about receiving health care from large corporate, multi-hospital systems that employ their own physicians, such as Fairview and Sanford. This deal could raise the price of our health care, from the deductibles to the pharmacy costs, while failing to deliver better care. Larger is not better. As a physician and consumer of health care, I hope our attorney general, governor and legislators consider:
The cost of worker burnout and the financial burden of health care costs carried by Minnesota families is on the line. A larger system is not the answer. Fairview is a perfect example.
Minnesota has a chance to be a national leader, and address the issue of integrated hospital and physician-owned networks, which have behaved unconscionably with our health care dollars and quality of medical care. It is high time we look at real statistics, numbers generated by reliable outside sources to guide our health into the future.
Legislators, roll up your sleeves. People, write to your local officials. Allowing this merger will only make things worse.
by Elisabeth Slattery, M.D., Minnesota Reformer
December 19, 2022
by Elisabeth Slattery, M.D., Minnesota Reformer
December 19, 2022
Fairview Health Services and Sanford Health announced their plans to merge last month, and we can expect their paid talkers to provide the corporate ooze of benevolence. They’ll tell us the merger is a chance to offer higher consolidation of care, improve quality of care and coordination of care, and save health care dollars. The two companies have our community’s public health at heart.
Only a gullible fool would buy into such nonsense. Positive rhetoric does not outweigh hard facts about receiving health care from large corporate, multi-hospital systems that employ their own physicians, such as Fairview and Sanford. This deal could raise the price of our health care, from the deductibles to the pharmacy costs, while failing to deliver better care. Larger is not better. As a physician and consumer of health care, I hope our attorney general, governor and legislators consider:
The cost of worker burnout and the financial burden of health care costs carried by Minnesota families is on the line. A larger system is not the answer. Fairview is a perfect example.
Minnesota has a chance to be a national leader, and address the issue of integrated hospital and physician-owned networks, which have behaved unconscionably with our health care dollars and quality of medical care. It is high time we look at real statistics, numbers generated by reliable outside sources to guide our health into the future.
Legislators, roll up your sleeves. People, write to your local officials. Allowing this merger will only make things worse.
Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com. Follow Minnesota Reformer on Facebook and Twitter.
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Dr. Elisabeth Slattery is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Medical School and completed her Internship and residency at Hennepin County Medical Center. She’s worked as a clinician and hospitalist, plus a stint in the Sudan serving Eritrean refugees. Originally from Chicago, she resides with her husband in St. Paul and is the mother of five grown children. Slattery is an avid cyclist, swimmer and yoga instructor.
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Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our web site.
