Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison expressed frustration with Minneapolis-based University of Minnesota after it missed a March 31 deadline to finalize an agreement to fund the state’s largest medical school, The Minnesota Star Tribune reported April 6.
In an April 6 statement, Mr. Ellison recalled a mediation agreement reached among the university, Minneapolis-based Fairview Health Services and University of Minnesota Physicians in January to secure core funding for the medical school over the next 10 years. That agreement was the result of more than a year of strategic facilitation and mediation, according to the statement.
The mediation agreement outlined three separate agreements: an academic affiliation agreement between the University of Minnesota and Fairview; a master agreement between the University of Minnesota Physicians and the University of Minnesota; and an amendment to the stability agreement that Fairview and University of Minnesota Physicians reached in November 2025.
While Mr. Ellison commended Fairview and the U of M Physicians on working to finalize their stability agreement, he voiced frustration with the lack of a deal between the University and the U of M Physicians over the missed March 31 deadline.
“This lack of a bilateral agreement between the University and the University of Minnesota Physicians does not have to harm the provision of healthcare to patients, the recruitment and retention of physicians, or the Medical School, provided that all parties agree to work collaboratively and refrain from public criticism or attacks that in the past have had a destabilizing effect on patients, physicians, and funders,” reads the statement.
He urged all parties involved to be “diplomatic” and “respectful” as they move forward in the negotiations.
In the past year, the university has been working with a team of consultants to pursue various new control and governance measures in their relationship with Fairview and the U of M Physicians, according to the statement. This included a proposal to buy back the medical center and other assets from Fairview; fostering new partnerships with Duluth, Minn.-based Essentia Health while gradually phasing out the relationship with Fairview; and removing the U of M Physicians as the faculty practice group for the medical school.
U of M Physicians told the Star Tribune that the missed deadline was “unfortunate,” adding that negotiators are taking “additional time to give our remaining work the thorough care it requires.”
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