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Minnesota is fortunate to have among the most successful and innovative health care ecosystems in the nation. We have skilled, experienced caregivers, responsible stewardship of our nonprofit health care resources, and a statewide cultural commitment to individual and community health and well-being. Over many decades we have worked in partnership with the state to address societal health risks and forge better health outcomes for all.
That was never more evident than three years ago when we confronted the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, the state turned to our hospitals and clinics to respond to the greatest public health crisis of our age. In a true team effort among nurses, physicians, technicians, team leaders and countless health care workers of all kinds, Minnesota's hospitals pivoted to take on the daunting work of treating thousands of patients, setting up massive testing programs and, by December 2020, leading the largest vaccination effort in state history.
Now, as the national public health emergency comes to an end, Minnesota's hospitals and health care systems are confronting their worst financial environment in decades while a historic health care worker shortage is straining already strapped systems. Despite this reality, Minnesota's Legislature is on the verge of passing several new laws that together will make the crisis worse.
If these bills pass as they are written, Minnesota's nonprofit hospitals are in trouble. This is not hyperbole. These proposals would negatively impact hospital care including mandating new committees to determine the day-to-day management of our hospitals, handing decisionmaking authority for care delivery to external lawyers, fixing prices for hospital care, and limiting flexibility for health care partnerships. Together, these proposals will worsen an already unsustainable path for the future of hospitals in our state, endanger access to care, and may spell the beginning of the end of Minnesota's nonprofit hospital model.
The reality is that our hospitals simply do not have sufficient resources. We all agree that Minnesota needs solutions to workforce and financial issues, but the current bills that mandate cumbersome staffing committees, create a pricing oversight commission and endanger our ability to partner with each other to ensure the future of our statewide system of care are the wrong approach. They will instead raise care costs inside and outside of hospitals, impose additional penalties on hospitals and put high-quality care further out of reach for many Minnesotans.
Patients will have to go farther and wait longer for care at hospitals. State-mandated oversight committees will delay care by burdening hospitals and health systems with administrative work, additional costs and unnecessary mandates, taking health care providers away from their patients. Thousands of patients may be denied care if hospitals cannot admit them due to unnecessary mandates. Patients with heart attacks, strokes, surgical needs and trauma would face increasing roadblocks to care.
