Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed two bills central to separate healthcare controversies into law on May 26.
The first, the Nurse and Patient Safety Act, is revised from the original, union-backed Keeping Nurses at the Bedside Act.
The original legislation would have required health systems to form staffing committees of equal parts direct care workers and nursing leaders, which would decide on nurse-to-patient staffing ratios the state could enforce. Those staffing measures were cut following pushback from health systems, including Rochester-based Mayo Clinic, that said they would lead to service cuts.
The updated legislation targets workplace violence prevention, nurse burnout and loan forgiveness.
Mr. Walz also inked a bill increasing the state's oversight of healthcare mergers, consolidations and transactions. The law is timely, as Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Sanford Health and Minneapolis-based Fairview Health Services have been planning to combine since the fall.
Their intended merger has been controversial in the state; particularly, it has met opposition from Minneapolis-based University of Minnesota, whose hospitals are owned and operated by Fairview.
The new law will prohibit the university's healthcare facilities from being owned or operated by an out-of-state entity unless the attorney general decides it is in the public interest. It would also increase requirements for timely notifications of transactions and prohibit transactions that would substantially lower competition.
The proposed merger has already been delayed twice by the state's oversight process. However, health system officials told Becker's the new law will not halt their plans.
"This new law does not change our desire to combine with Sanford Health, and while it creates new regulatory processes, we strongly believe that the merger is in the public interest and that we can comply with the new requirements," a Fairview spokesperson said as the bill headed to the governor. "As we move forward, we will continue to work closely with the attorney general's office on their review and continue to abide by the commitment to provide 90 days' notice prior to any closing date."