Midwest health systems Fairview and Sanford call off $14 billion merger

Sanford Health and Fairview Health Services have for the second time scrapped their planned merger, the systems announced Thursday. 

The plan to create a $14 billion health system with just shy of 60 hospitals encountered significant resistance from the University of Minnesota, whose main teaching hospital in Minneapolis is part of Fairview. University leaders and state officials alike soured on the idea of the hospital being owned by an out-of-state entity. The merged system would have been headquartered in Sioux Falls, S.D., where Sanford is based. 

Despite the heartburn in Minnesota, it was ultimately Sanford that called the deal off. The system said in a statement that its board made the decision in a meeting at noon on Thursday. Sanford’s CEO, Bill Gassen, called Fairview’s CEO, James Hereford, two hours later to tell him. 

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