Hennepin County’s primary safety-net hospital is operating on an emergency financial respirator, with officials warning this week that a $200 million budget hole must be plugged by year’s end to avoid a total collapse of the facility.
Hennepin Healthcare, which operates the downtown Hennepin County Medical Center, told state lawmakers Wednesday that it must identify $50 million in savings by the end of March and an additional $150 million by the fall. The shortfall has nearly tripled since late last year, driven by a surge in uncompensated care and a looming “cliff” of federal funding cuts.
“People need to hear that the hospital is at real risk of closing,” said District 4 Commissioner Angela Conley during a hearing before the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. “Hennepin County cannot afford to absorb those costs, nor can we increase our property tax levy enough to even cover them. Without revenue to replace the ongoing losses, the hospital will not remain open.”
The crisis has already forced deep cuts at the 701 Park Ave. campus. This month, hospital leadership slashed 100 inpatient beds—reducing total capacity to 390—and eliminated roughly 100 full-time positions. Programs deemed non-essential, including chiropractic care, acupuncture, and sleep medicine, have been shuttered.
Abdirahman Abdi, the hospital’s chief financial officer, said the system recently saw its cash position drop below zero, forcing it to use a county line of credit just to meet payroll. “Every two weeks, the county is helping the hospital make payroll,” said Commissioner Jeffrey Lunde, who also chairs the hospital board. “It can’t get more dire than that.”
The financial pressure is expected to intensify. Hospital leaders are bracing for the impact of H.R. 1, federal legislation that officials say will result in a $170 million annual reduction in Medicaid revenue starting Jan. 1, 2027. Over the next decade, the hospital projects a $1.7 billion loss in federal support.
To stave off insolvency, county officials are lobbying the Minnesota Legislature for permission to repurpose a 0.15% sales tax currently used to pay off bonds for Target Field. The stadium debt is expected to be settled by 2027, and commissioners want to pivot those funds—roughly $30 million to $40 million annually—to the hospital.
“We’re not asking the state for money,” Lunde said. “We’re asking for a chance to repurpose a sales tax.”
State Sen. Melissa Wiklund, DFL-Bloomington, said the loss of HCMC would be “catastrophic” for the entire state, noting that its Level 1 trauma and burn centers handle cases from across the Upper Midwest. If HCMC were to fail, private hospitals like Abbott Northwestern and M Health Fairview would likely be overwhelmed by an influx of uninsured and high-acuity patients they are not equipped to absorb.
For now, the hospital is freezing employee retirement contributions, delaying $24 million in capital improvements, and suspending travel expenses. Critics of the hospital’s 2025 governance shift, in which the County Board dissolved the hospital’s independent board to take direct control, argue the move consolidated power without addressing the underlying math of safety-net medicine.
As the legislative session nears its midpoint, the message from the county is clear: Without a new revenue stream by the May adjournment, the process of winding down operations at the state’s largest public hospital may become an unavoidable reality.
I have an idea for funding. Shake the piggy bank that is the super wealthy.
Always the same low IQ answer? The problem is decades of mis-management and probably Fraud. Taxing the rich is no different than trying to help cancer victims by making healthy people sick. Sorry economics doesn’t work that way
I worked for MHP as a medical director and saw fraud every day at HCMC. GIVING them more encourages more bad behavior.
CFO HCMC
The blame for this is squarely on the Hennepin County commissioners. Irene Fernando of District 2 (north Minneapolis and suburbs) has a doctorate in HR and sat on the board of HCMC for years and did nothing. Angela Conley of District 4 (south Minneapolis east of 35W) also says whatever people want to hear, and then does nothing.
The commissioners bullied the former chair Babette Apland to step down in 2024 after she made remarks about uncompensated care and tied it to the Somali population (her actual remarks have never been revealed).
The commissioners then dissolved the HCMC board in 2025 (even after two commissioners sat on the prior board and apparently contributed nothing by way of guidance) and many people speculated it was a first step to closing or privatizing HCMC.
In the meantime, the commissioners also attempted to give themselves a 49% raise—Fernando, Conley, Greene, and Goettel specifically.
The County lies. It claims to have functionally ended veteran homelessness, but also no longer keep track of how many people they turn away from homeless shelters (per an investigative piece from the Star Tribune).
It’s clear Hennepin County cannot be trusted. It’s a shame that HCMC was put in this position by incompetent elected officials. With any luck, Fernando and Greene will lose their seats in 2026, though it looks like we’re stuck with Conley for another four years as she’s running unopposed (for now).
The commissioners are focused on more important things: Hennepin County Commissioner Conley Touts Reparations Task Force – https://minneapolistimes.com/hennepin-county-commissioner-conley-touts-reparations-task-force/