HealthPartners and Essentia Health announced plans to combine, creating one of Minnesota's largest health systems with 22 hospitals and 45,000 employees. The new organization will keep the HealthPartners name and be led by its current CEO. Essentia operates 14 hospitals, mainly in north central and northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin, while HealthPartners runs eight hospitals in the Twin Cities and western Wisconsin, along with an integrated health plan that has helped offset weaker hospital performance this year.
The deal is the third major hospital merger proposed in the state within six months, following Sutter Health's planned combination with Allina Health and Sanford's recently closed acquisition of North Memorial. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison's office, which cannot block deals outright but can sue to stop them, has scheduled community meetings on the merger. Regulators previously cleared the Sanford deal after securing an oversight agreement, but the Sutter-Allina tie-up has drawn criticism from stakeholders who cite Sutter's pricing history elsewhere.
Unions have pushed back on the pace of consolidation. The Minnesota Nurses Association said it would advocate for a transparent review and full financial disclosure, warning that increased concentration could raise health costs and hurt access. Research cited in the announcement notes that hospital consolidation often leads to higher prices without corresponding gains in quality. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, and neither system responded to requests for comment.