M Health Fairview brand to end with newly approved agreement

The University of Minnesota and Fairview Health Services will have more of an arm’s length relationship under a new partnership deal that will remove the well-known M Health Fairview brand from hospitals and clinics.

The U’s Board of Regents voted 12-0 Jan. 30 to approve the long-negotiated renewal of the partnership agreement, which was first announced Monday. It codifies a reworking of the marketing, financial and governance relationships between the university and Fairview, which together operate and staff one of the state’s largest chains of hospitals and clinics.

“The M Health Fairview brand will sunset,” U President Dr. Rebecca Cunningham said during the meeting Friday.

Other details of the new agreement are not yet finalized and key points have been made public, since they’re part of a separate, still undisclosed agreement announced in November between Minneapolis-based Fairview and University of Minnesota Physicians. UMP is the group medical practice for doctors who treat patients at the university, conduct research and teach at the U Medical School.

Both Fairview and UMP are private nonprofits.

Aside from branding, patients shouldn’t notice any changes with their access to doctors at the U as a consequence of the new agreement. Behind the scenes, the university will lose all three of its seats on the Fairview board of directors and surrender partial control at a large clinic and surgery center they’ve been jointly operating.

Beginning in 2027, Fairview will also provide less guaranteed financial support directly to the state’s largest medical school.

The university did not elaborate on exactly what this distinction means, but sources say it signals a weaker partnership — not surprising given significant public discord between the U and Fairview, particularly during the past four years.

Volatility included the U’s public opposition to a 2022 plan by Fairview to merge with South Dakota-based Sanford Health. Fairview, in turn, opposed the U’s push in 2025 for the health system to merge its assets with a new nonprofit run by Duluth-based Essentia Health.

Last spring, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison stepped in to broker a deal before the current Fairview-U affiliation expires at the end of 2026. Ellison appointed a strategic facilitator and later a team of mediators to come up with the agreement that was announced this week.

Currently, Fairview is providing about $100 million per year in support for teaching, research and health care programs at the U. The new deal provides $50 million in guaranteed annual support, plus the opportunity for additional “variable” funding based on Fairview’s financial performance.

The particulars on how much variable funding might be available, what would trigger those payments and whether the total would equal existing payment levels is not detailed in the agreement approved Friday by the U’s regents.

The greater distance, in other words, is between Fairview and the administrative leadership at the U.

The 10-year deal starts in January 2027. That’s a shorter duration than the previous 30-year deal, which expires at the end of this year. It was launched in 1997 when Fairview acquired University of Minnesota Medical Center, the U’s massive teaching hospital in Minneapolis.

Fairview still owns the hospital, although the U has suggested in recent years it might like to reacquire the facility.

About a decade ago, the U opened a large outpatient medical center on Fulton Street on its East Bank campus called the Clinic and Surgery Center (CSC), which serves as a sort of “front door” to the large UMMC facility nearby. Patients who need advanced hospital services at the U often get part of their care at the CSC.

Within this building, Fairview and UMP operated a joint venture that as of last year owed the health system more than $100 million for supplies and services. Under the agreement being considered Friday, the U would transfer UMP’s interest in the joint venture to Fairview, which would then wipe away the debt as Fairview assumes operations of the building.

The U owns the CSC building, so the university and Fairview must negotiate a new lease agreement.

The M Health Fairview brand launched in 2019 amid fanfare and optimism by the U, UMP and Fairview over a new chapter in their often-fraught relationship. Fairview had agreed to provide more financial support to the U, which would bolster the reach and reputation of the U Medical School and the reach of cutting-edge medical services provided by university doctors.

Dr. Jakub Tolar, dean of the U’s Medical School, cited research at the time showing a rural cancer patient with less access to specialized medical care had a much worse chance at recovery than an identical metro patient.

“That’s unacceptable,” Tolar told the Minnesota Star Tribune in 2019. “That’s unbelievably wrong. That’s social-justice wrong.”

The new agreement provides less guaranteed funding. Tolar announced this month he’s leaving the U for a job in Texas, a move that has prominent university donors worried that a pattern of departures by highly respected physician leaders will accelerate.