All Minnesotans deserve access to quality, affordable healthcare, and frontline workers in healthcare settings deserve safe and healthy work environments. But executives of HealthPartners of Minnesota are pushing decisions and priorities which reflect a corporate healthcare model that prioritizes profits over patients, raising questions about how committed they really are to putting patients before profits.
HealthPartners' "Priorities" vs. HealthPartners' Record
HealthPartners claims to prioritize “Health as it could be, affordability as it must be.”[1] Their current President and CEO Andrea Walsh asserts that “our focus is making health care simpler and more affordable.”[2]
These are admirable goals with which most Minnesotans and healthcare workers would agree. But the record and actions of HealthPartners executives puts these priorities into question.
HealthPartners posted stronger earnings in 2020 than many healthcare organizations. The federal CARES Act “. . . provided $129.8 million in funding last year [2020] to HealthPartners. The health system also cut expenses by lowering salaries and closing clinics. . . In 2020, HealthPartners saw revenue of $7.03 billion and expenses of about $6.94 billion, resulting in operating income of $96 million. . . “[23] HealthPartners saw a profitable year while workers faced layoffs and communities saw their clinics closed.
SOURCES
[1] https://www.healthpartners.com/about/
[2]ibid
[3]They’ve got the blues: Minnesota Blues and hospitals point fingers regarding who is ultimately responsible for the nation’s soaring healthcare costs, Modern Healthcare, September 23, 2002
[4] OK, so not all of those rising costs come from hospital, Modern Healthcare, November 25, 2002
[5] HealthPartners took pains to downplay bonuses to former CEO, The Associated Press State & Local Wire, January 17, 2003
[6] Improved HMO oversight needed, governor says, The Associated Press State & Local Wire, January 31, 2003
[7] Met Council wants specifics of arbitration, Star Tribune, January 6, 2004
[8]Is conflict of interest a factor in bus strike?; A husband-wife connection raises the transit union’s suspicions, Star Tribune, March 28, 2004
[9]Union recommends HealthPartners pact, Star Tribune, February 6, 2005
[10] HealthPartners trims mental health staff: The organization said it isn’t getting out of the mental health business. Its medical clinics still have therapists on staff, Star Tribune, January 11, 2006
[11]HealthPartners website, https://www.healthpartners.com/about/community/mental-health/
[12]Twin Cities / HealthPartners, clinic workers union reach deal St. Paul Pioneer Press, February 9, 2008
[13]https://www.virtuwell.com/inside-virtuwell and The new house call is online, Star Tribune, November 25, 2012
[14] Trans insurance suit can proceed, Star Tribune, September 22, 2018
[15]St. Paul district on hook for $4M after teacher union votes to leave health plan, St. Paul Pioneer Press, July 24, 2019
[16]St. Paul teachers should honor pact, Star Tribune, August 9, 2019
[17]HP clinic workers vote for a strike, Star Tribune, February 8, 2020
[18]Health officials confirm first case of novel coronavirus in Minnesota, Minnesota Department of Health News Release, March 6, 2020 (https://www.health.state.mn.us/news/pressrel/2020/covid19030620.html)
[19]Virus forcing Allina to slash worker costs, Star Tribune, May 6, 2020
[20]HealthPartners to furlough 2,600, Star Tribune, April 24, 2020
[21]System cutting 200 jobs at clinics, Star Tribune, July 3, 2020
[22] ibid
[23]Insurer comes out ahead in pandemic, Star Tribune, May 7, 2021
[24] State health insurers seek steeper rate hikes for individual coverage, Star Tribune, August 1, 202