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Fairview tells ‘U’ it’s not renewing current contract
The current partnership between the U of M and Fairview was set to auto-renew on Dec. 31, 2026.
MINNEAPOLIS — Fairview Health Services told the University of Minnesota Monday it won’t renew its current agreement, saying its “level of financial support” to the university “threatens the sustainability” of its health care system.
The current partnership expires on Dec. 31, 2026. However, under the terms of the contract, the deal would be set to auto-renew if neither side took action by the end of the 2023 calendar year.
Fairview went on to say, “…this notice of intent to not renew serves simply to avoid automatically renewing the current agreement. We will continue to negotiate in good faith with the U of M to attempt to establish a new agreement.”
Fairview officials said this notice of non-renewal will not change things for their patients or employees under the “M Health Fairview” brand, which was established in 2018.
“M Health Fairview is the same today and will be tomorrow,” spokesperson Joe Campbell said. “All this is, is an opportunity for both Fairview and the University of Minnesota to step back and chart our new path forward.”
Under a strain from COVID, Fairview has posted operating losses throughout the pandemic and reported losing $315 million in 2022. At the same time, Fairview has said its payments to University of Minnesota Physicians and specialists have increased exponentially, on top of Fairview’s annual contributions to the medical school that totaled roughly $100 million this year.
“Our financial situation is such that we need to be very deliberate and careful about how we are spending money,” Campbell said. “We want to find a path forward with the University of Minnesota, that ultimately leaves both organizations in a better place.”
Following Fairview’s announcement, the U of M released a statement, saying, “We have previously said, as has Fairview, that our current agreement would have to change for the future. Fairview’s announcement today simply reaffirms those statements.”
Monday’s announcement from Fairview comes just a week after the Minnesota Hospital Association (MHA) painted a bleak financial picture of the state’s health care industry, releasing a new report citing hundreds of millions of dollars in operating losses so far in 2023.
This past summer, the proposed mega-merger between Fairview and South Dakota-based Sanford Health also fell through. The companies announced the potential merger back in November 2022, which would have created one of the largest health care providers in the country. The two health systems explored a possible merger in 2013 but the deal fell apart after concerns from state leaders over the control of the University of Minnesota Medical Center, the state’s largest academic training hospital, which is currently operated by Fairview. The University of Minnesota has proposed buying back the hospital from Fairview.
Fairview’s spokesperson Joe Campbell said the health system remains open to selling the hospital back to the U of M and that those discussions will continue during contract negotiations.
Allan Baumgarten, an independent health care analyst based in Minneapolis, said he expects the two sides to eventually reach a new agreement beyond 2026.
“Each needs the kind of partnership that the other provides,” Baumgarten said. “They’re large organizations, and there are a lot of revenues flowing through each one. And the question is, are there ways they can work together well and make it financially viable for each side?”
BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. — A man is facing a felony charge following the death of his 3-year-old son, who fell out the window of an 8th-floor apartment.
It happened the morning of May 18 at the Lux Apartments on Summit Drive in Brooklyn Center. According to the criminal complaint, the child was declared dead at the scene by paramedics.
The child’s father, Saleban Abdullahi Duale, is charged with second-degree manslaughter. He was staying at his brother’s apartment with his kids, and one of the children told investigators their dad was on the phone all morning. The complaint states the couch in the living room was pushed up against the window, and a 9-year-old witness told investigators the 3-year-old was pushing on the window screen before they fell.
The son of a former Minnesota State Representative is now charged with five counts of third-degree murder, on top of the original 10 charges.
MINNEAPOLIS — Editor’s note: The above video originally aired on August 28, 2024.
The Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced Monday that a man charged with killing five women in a 2023 Minneapolis car crash will now face additional charges.
In a news release, Moriarty said Derrick Thompson is now charged with five counts of third-degree murder, on top of the original 10 counts of criminal vehicular homicide.
Prosecutors say Thompson, the son of former Minnesota State Representative John Thompson, rented a Cadillac SUV on June 16, 2023. Shortly afterward, Thompson was clocked by a state trooper driving 95 mph on I-35W — weaving in and out of traffic. He exited on Lake Street, sped through a red light, and struck a black Honda with five people inside.
The crash killed five young women ages 17 to 20: Salma Mohamed Abdikadir, Sahra Liban Gesaade, Sagal Burhaan Hersi, Siham Adan Odhowa, and Sabiriin Mohamoud Ali.
“The senseless deaths of these five young women at the hands of Mr. Thompson has devastated their families and communities,” said Moriarty in a news release. “The sad fact is that he has done this before. Just six months before this crash, Mr. Thompson was released from a California prison for fleeing police, speeding off the highway and onto city streets where he struck and severely injured a woman. His lengthy record of dangerous driving, the trail of devastation he’s left in his wake, and his conduct in this case make these more serious charges appropriate. We will continue to seek a lengthy period of incarceration to keep the community safe.”
Additionally, Thompson faces federal charges related to the crash. Thompson was allegedly found with fentanyl and a loaded gun inside the Escalade. As a convicted felon, he is not legally allowed to possess a firearm.
The plaintiff – now 26, but 15 at the time she was reportedly sold for sex – says staff at the Brooklyn Center Super 8 Hotel turned a blind eye to her traffickers.
MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota woman who says she was a victim of sex trafficking as a teen has filed suit against the operators of a Twin Cities hotel for allegedly not only turning a blind eye to the illegal activity but giving her captors extra accommodations to do their business.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, seeks unnamed actual, compensatory, and punitive damages from what it calls “The Wyndham Brand Defendants” – a group of corporate entities that operated the Super 8 Hotel at 6445 James Circle N. in Brooklyn Center back in 2013 when the plaintiff was 15 years old.
Now 26 years old, the plaintiff alleges that she was ensnared by sex traffickers who tricked her into believing they planned to take care of her but instead kidnapped her, posted advertisements online, and forced her to have commercial sex for their financial benefit. Under the constant threat of violence, she found herself forced to do “increasingly depraved things, in increasingly depraved locations, such as the Brooklyn Center Super 8,” the lawsuit alleges.
In court documents, the unnamed plaintiff – named in court documents only as T.S. – says between August and December of 2013 she was unlawfully and repeatedly trafficked at the Brooklyn Center Super 8. The lawsuit maintains that staffers knew T.S. was a minor under the age of 18 and was being prostituted inside a room that The Wyndham Defendants were profiting from, but did nothing to stop it.
“Upon arrival and throughout her trafficking at the subject Super 8 Hotel, the “red flags” of the sex trafficking venture were apparent to the point where Defendants’ managers admitted that they suspected commercial sex with a child under 18 was occurring and had occurred in Room 262, the room in which the Plaintiff was located,” the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit adds that based on Wyndham policy or protocol, Super 8 managers and staff were required to report the obvious signs T.S. was being sex trafficked to corporate officials and law enforcement but failed to do so. In fact, the plaintiff alleges, staff at the hotel actually helped the traffickers by continuing to rent them rooms without requiring legal ID, accepting cash payments instead of traceable credit cards, and even providing extra towels to clean up evidence of illicit sexual activities.
A federal law known as the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act allows victims to sue entities that financially benefit from participating in a venture they know or should know engages in criminal sex trafficking.
In a submitted response the Wyndham Defendants deny the allegations, and say they lack knowledge or information “to form a belief as to the truth of the allegation that Plaintiff was a victim of sex trafficking.”
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