Minneapolis-based Fairview Health Services and the University of Minnesota's private physician group are thinking of joining forces, according to a Star Tribune report.
Here are five things to know about a potential merger between the two parties.
1. Merger talks could begin soon if the University of Minnesota's board of regents votes to begin discussions between Fairview, which runs 42 clinics and seven hospitals, as well as Minneapolis-based University of Minnesota Physicians, which comprises 750 physicians and provides faculty for the university's medical school, according to the report. A vote is expected to take place Oct. 9.
2. Fairview Health and university leaders declined to comment to the Star Tribune until after the board of regents votes.
3. However, a merger would presumably do two things, according to the report. First, it would improve access for primary care physicians at Fairview Health to UMP specialists. Second, it would give UMP access to Fairview's patient base and resources, such as home healthcare.
4. An official merger between the two parties was always discussed as the partnership between Fairview Health and the university evolved because separately they spend "inordinate amounts of time fighting over nickels that don't add up to the progress of the organization," David Page, Fairview Health's CEO from 1998 to 2007, told the Star Tribune.
5. The recent consideration of a merger comes two decades after Fairview Health rescued the University of Minnesota's financially ailing hospitals and clinics, according to the report.
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