ROCHESTER, Minn. – The financially powerful Mayo Clinic is bullying the Legislature to back off bills to improve hospital staffing and to curb rising health-care costs. In an investigative journalism piece, the Minnesota Reformer reported that Mayo has threatened to kill $5 billion in newinvestments in Rochester and build in another state instead. Why? The Legislature is pondering these bills:
> Keeping Nurses at the Bedside bill, to give nurses a role in setting hospital staffing levels.
> Health Care Affordability Board bill, to create an agency to help rein in health-care costs.
The hard-ball message to lawmakers, from Mayo’s chef lobbyist, Kate Johansen, is an ultimatum. In an email, Johansen said in effect: Gut the bills. The email went to Governor Tim Walz and legislative leaders. The email said that Mayo’s decision on whether to move its expansion plans elsewhere was is “time sensitive.” The decision, she said, would be made in a matter of days. “Because these bills continue to proceed without meaningful and necessary changes to avert their harms to Minnesotans, we cannot proceed with seeking approval to make this investment in Minnesota. We will need to direct this enormous investment to other states,” she said.
Mayo’s clout
As Minnesota’s largest private employer, Mayo Clinic is a a self-serving heavyweight in the state’s public policy in the past. Mayo’s major leverage in recent history has been its Destination Medical Center project to strengthen the clinic’s role as a global magnet for health care. In 2013, the Mayo extracted $500 million in state funds for the project. The Clinic’s claim was that the project would generate billions of dollars in private investment in Rochester. The best estimate is that the Destination Medical Center project so far is succeeding and has drawn $1.2 bullion in private investment and continues to do so. A distinction between the 2013 and 2023 Mayo demands is that time the Clinic is opposing legislation designed to improve the quality of public health services and to reduce medical expenses for the public.
Hospital staffing
The Keeping Nurses at the Bedside bill would require hospitals to form committees made up of nurses and other hospital staff to create “core staffing plans” to set ceilings on how many patients each nurse can safely care for. A public grading system report on how well hospitals comply. The bill is supported by the Minnesota Nurses Association. Hospitals have spoken against the bill, saying it would raise staffing costs, lead to closing hospital units, and force hospitals to turn away patients. Worth noting: Eight other states have similar requirements. California and Massachusetts have even more stringent, government-mandated nurse-to-patient ratios. Mayo Clinic says the bill would impede the automation of many of the functions nurses. Also, says Mayo, the public grading system could tarnish its reputation.
Transparency on patient costs
The Health Care Affordability bill would create a board to monitor patient costs for health care and report to the public regularly. This likely would take the form of rank-listing hospitals as a consumer-friendly mechanism in choosing hospitals. The bill’s sponsors have noted that hospital charges have skyrocketing and are likely to worsen as the population ages. Rising costs would eventually would require the state to care for people in need. Mayo has called the bill “extremely problematic.” As drafted, the bill would face “a huge threat the well-being of Minnesota’s health care,” Mayo says. In recent financial reports, Mayo has complained about rising expenses exceeding revenue from patients.