The University of Minnesota’s fierce rejection of a $1 billion deal between the University of Minnesota Physicians and Minneapolis-based Fairview Health Services has fueled a tumultuous debate. The result? More negotiating.

The deal, called the Strategic Partnership for Minnesota’s Healthcare Future, will begin Jan. 1, 2027, and aims to continue health services and medical training at the University of Minnesota Health Center, reported the Minnesota Daily. The deal received harsh criticism from University leaders.

On Nov. 21, University President Rebecca Cunningham announced the University plans to continue its negotiations with Fairview. She addressed the concerns of healthcare professionals in a systemwide email.

“I have heard the understandable expressions of concern and urgency from the doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, other healthcare professionals and staff who perform life-changing work each and every day to care for patients at the bedside, teach the next generation and advance research discoveries,” Cunningham wrote in the statement.

The University’s Board of Regents previously referred to the deal as a “hostile takeover” and alleged the deal would give Fairview too much control, according to the Minnesota Daily.

Administrative Dismissals

Following the announcement of UMP and Fairview’s partnership, the President’s office fired multiple UMP leaders from University operations in the heat of rising tensions. 

Chief Financial Officer William Sibert and Interim Vice President of Clinical Operations Greg Beilman were removed from their respective roles with the University. The University of Minnesota Foundation also cut ties with law firm Lathrop GPM and its chair, Jennifer Reedstrom Bishop​​, according to the Star Tribune.

The University rationalized the dismissals by passing a resolution in a Nov. 13 special Board meeting, reaffirming the Office of the President’s authority to make such calls. Administrators and board leadership claimed UMP violated its obligations to the University by partnering with Fairview. 

The terms were laid out in four bullet points, some of which were verbally ambiguous, according to Regent James Farnsworth. He called on the rest of the Board to clarify what exactly it entailed.

“In some of these bullet points, looking at the resolution in particular, it’s a little broader or more open-ended than something I would traditionally be comfortable with,” Farnsworth said.

After several seconds of silence, several Board members and staff chimed in to quash confusion, including the Board’s Executive Director and Corporate Secretary Brian Steeves. 

They explained the verbiage, but did not include what exact measures the President would take.

“How I would read the language of this particular resolved clause is the Board is setting some priorities that it wishes to have its President take a look at first in this,” Steeves said.

After Regent Mary Turner tearfully finished up an impromptu anecdote about COVID-19 vaccines, pleading that University involvement was crucial in medical exploration, Chair Doug Huebsch abruptly launched the vote to pass the resolution. 

The resolution passed unanimously.

In light of the resolution, the University scrambled to cut its losses by firing various medical school personnel over the span of a week.

Interim Vice President for Clinical Operations Dr. Gregory Beilman was removed from his role at the University amidst the spat between UMP and University administrators. While the UMP is governed by its own directors, a statement from UMP revealed the University took the liberty to remove him from what they were able to control.

“On Nov. 17, the University of Minnesota President’s Office informed Dr. Beilman that his interim appointment as the University’s Vice President for Clinical Operations had ended,” the statement read. 

Even after his dismissal from his University role, Beilman will continue to serve in his role as UMP Interim Chief Executive Officer.

University PR addressed the dismissals in the following statement:

“The Board of Regents at its Nov. 13 meeting unanimously passed a resolution directing the University to address concerns resulting from the recent actions of M Physicians leadership involving individuals serving in dual roles at the University of Minnesota and M Physicians. These personnel changes were in direct response to those concerns and will help ensure the integrity of ongoing negotiations between the University, M Physicians and Fairview Health Services.”

The Board’s next meeting was scheduled a week later to further discuss negotiations, but was cancelled the morning of. Instead, Cunningham announced that administrators had already reached their own conclusion the night before.

The decision to resume healthcare negotiations with UMP and Fairview was a conversation the rest of the board was not privy to. 

Regent Farnsworth said that most clinical partnership talks have been handled at a board leadership level, meaning Regents Huebsch, Ruth Johnson and Penny Wheeler. He said he “may not be in the loop.”

Attorney General Keith Ellison confirmed the three parties were heading back to the negotiating table in a Nov. 21 statement.

“I am pleased to announce that the University of Minnesota, Fairview Health Services, and M Physicians are returning to the negotiating table in a process that I will continue to manage with a mutually agreed-upon mediator to be selected shortly,” Ellison wrote.

A new mediator will be a part of that process. Under Strategic Facilitator Lois Quam’s facilitation, UMP and Fairview excluded the University from talks.

Specifically, the University was excluded from the formation of a new Letter of Intent, a document that outlines agreements between parties. Regents Huebsch, Johnson and Wheeler, as well as Cunningham, strongly disapproved.

The three board chairs expressed their concerns in a letter to Ellison on Nov. 11. In it, they cited four demands, one of which was the request for a more “experienced mediator.”