MAYO CLINIC

Mayo Clinic reports 'strong' finances in 2025 so far, despite drops in contributions and grants

Jeff Kiger — Tue, 20 May 2025 19:36:35 GMT

ROCHESTER — Mayo Clinic reported “strong financial performance” for the first quarter of 2025, despite a decline in a few indicators of financial success.

The clinic reported $5.1 billion in revenue for the quarter. Meanwhile, contributions dropped by 43% and revenue from grants declined by 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year.

The numbers come from Mayo Clinic's “unaudited condensed consolidated financial reports” for the quarter ending March 31. The reports were posted on the Electronic Municipal Market Access website on Monday.

Some details from the reports:

Total revenue climbed 7.8%, to $5.1 billion (from $4.7 billion in the first quarter of 2024); Expenses increased 8.2%, to $4.73 billion; Among expenses, costs for facilities increased at the highest rate, 19.3%, to $290 million. Salaries and benefits increased by 4.4%, to $2.68 billion.

Mayo Clinic’s income — revenue minus expenses — increased by 2.75%, to $373 million. That's $10 million more than the $363 million reported in the first quarter of last year.

“Driven by our enduring commitment to put the needs of the patient first, Mayo Clinic made significant strides in the first quarter of 2025 to Cure, Connect and Transform health care for people everywhere,” according to Mayo Clinic’s summary of its “Management Discussion and Analysis” document attached to the financial report. “Strong financial performance enabled Mayo Clinic to invest in our staff, physical and digital infrastructure, and technologies to accelerate and drive the transformation of Healthcare.”

Revenue from contributions dropped to $85 million in the first quarter, compared to $149 million during the same quarter in 2024. Mayo Clinic acknowledged the change in its analysis.

“Contributions available for operating activities decreased from 2024 to 2025 due to an increase in gifts directed to non-operating activities,” stated Mayo Clinic in the report.

Non-operating investments labeled as “noncurrent” also saw a steep decline of 103% for the quarter.

“Noncurrent and other items include portions of philanthropic contributions and investment income not available to support operating activities, specific deferred compensation and other charges,” according to the report. “The decrease is largely driven by non-operating investment returns during 2025, which were an $18 million net loss compared to a $554 million net gain for the same period in 2024.”

Revenue from “grants and contracts” also dipped in the quarter by 3.6%, to $188 million.

Mayo Clinic did not respond to questions about the decreases in donations, investments or grants.

Net medical revenue, which accounts for 84.8% of total revenue, was up by 9.4% to $4.3 billion, including $264 million in revenue from Mayo Clinic’s external lab.

Patient and treatment metrics marked increases across the board. Admissions were reported as 34,315 for the quarter, compared to 2024's 31,994 and 2023’s 29,926. Patient days tallied were up by 6.2% to 198,163. That’s an increase from 186,508 days in 2024 and 179,323 days in 2023.

Looking ahead to the future, Mayo Clinic reported plans to invest in construction, particularly its massive Bold. Forward. Unbound organization-wide expansion.

Under “Commitments and Contingencies,” the unaudited report included the statement that the estimated costs of “various construction projects in progress related to patient care, research, and educational facilities totalled $7.48 billion, “all of which is expected to be expended over the next three to five years.”

Capital expenditures for the first quarter of 2025 totaled $339 million, which was slightly up from $332 million in 2024.

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Gov. Walz highlights Mayo Clinic’s $5B expansion as part of state tour

Matthew Stolle — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 14:39:14 GMT

ROCHESTER — Outfitted in a hard hat and safety vest, Gov. Tim Walz stood in the middle of the construction zone — ground zero of a physical transformation that will reconfigure Mayo Clinic and downtown Rochester as part of Mayo’s $5 billion expansion project.

“You’re seeing transformation in the physical aspect of Rochester, but transformation globally on (the way) health care is delivered,” he said.

The project is still in its earliest stages. Surrounding Walz and assorted dignitaries that included Mayo bigwigs, local politicos and lawmakers was mostly upheaval. To the north, the old Lourdes High �� was being clawed down. Roads were blocked off. Mayo’s Ozmun East building was gone. Ozmun West was waiting for the wrecking ball.

Where Walz stood will rise an innovative care facility in the next year or so, one of five buildings that will reshape the Rochester skyline.

During the brief press conference, Walz touted the construction jobs created, the improvement in health care through AI and technology, the lives improved and saved. Mayo Clinic is investing $5 billion to remake the downtown campus, and $585 million in public dollars funded upgrades in public infrastructure within the Destination Medical Center district.

“We’re getting the payback in terms of improving people’s lives,” he said.

Rochester Mayor Kim Norton said a “team of folks worked really hard to come up with a vision about what is the future of Rochester, what are we going to become?” In the beginning, many people didn’t know what that would mean or look like. Now, that vision is becoming more concrete and real.

“It wraps around this growth and development,” she said. “I couldn’t be more excited to have these careers and facilities that’s going to transform health care.”

Walz’s trip to Rochester was part of a statewide tour of multimillion-dollar economic development projects. He also toured a $31 million manufacturing and research facility in Plymouth and a $200 million expansion of tissue paper maker Sofidel in Duluth.

DFL Rep. Kim Hicks, of Rochester, said the physical changes signify an investment in “future doctors, in future health care professionals” who will take the knowledge and training they get at Mayo and spread it to other areas “to make lives better for all people.”

Asked whether the on-again, off-again tariffs President Donald Trump has imposed on countries has had any impact on construction projects through higher cost in materials, Walz said he hadn’t seen evidence of any impact so far.

“At this point in time, no (there hasn’t been an impact),” he said. “But I think any time you have a construction project, any time you have the amount of goods that are coming in, medical equipment, whether in the United States or elsewhere, anything that adds to the confusion or lack of stability, I don’t believe can be a good thing.”

Mayo President and CEO Gianrico Farrugia was not present during the press event, but Walz said he spent part of the morning talking with Farrugia about the future of health care.

“We spent a little bit of time talking about the transformation we’re seeing and the importance of artificial intelligence ... to improve the quality of life for a patient and improve their outcomes,” Walz said.

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Minnesota lawmakers react to Mayo Clinic charity care report

Dené K. Dryden — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 17:50:48 GMT

ROCHESTER — At his town hall meeting with area DFL lawmakers on Saturday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison took time to talk about his office's investigation into Mayo Clinic, the results of which had become public just the day before.

"We came to the conclusion that they could be doing better," Ellison said.

The investigation into Mayo Clinic's charity care and debt collection practices began in December 2022, after the Post Bulletin reported that some patients were being sued over their medical debt despite being eligible for charity care, had they known about the program.

Financial assistance, often called charity care, is a program all U.S. nonprofit hospitals are required to provide. Patients meeting certain financial benchmarks may qualify for free or reduced-cost care if they apply.

The attorney general's report found that "several of Mayo's policies were acting as a barrier to care for Minnesotans unable to pay for services," including steering patients toward fundraising or taking out a loan before discussing charity care.

During the investigation, Mayo Clinic made changes, such as screening patients with outstanding bills for their charity care eligibility and, if they qualified, reducing their debt owed. As a result, the health system's charity care contributions grew to $130 million in 2024.

"With this settlement, we move closer to patients being able to focus on what matters most: their recovery," said state Sen. Liz Boldon, DFL-Rochester.

In the years between the Post Bulletin's reporting and the end of Ellison's investigation, Boldon and state Rep. Liz Reyer, DFL-Eagan, saw their charity care and medical debt reform bills become law in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

Now, Minnesota hospitals must screen patients for their eligibility for charity care before taking certain actions to collect payment. Medical debt no longer impacts credit scores, and hospitals cannot withhold care to patients with outstanding bills.

"Everyone deserves the medical care they need," Boldon said. "It’s concerning that when it came to patients with lower incomes, Mayo Clinic neglected to put the needs of the patient first."

In response to the report, state Rep. Kim Hicks, DFL-Rochester, said "charity care applications and access should not be a secret."

State Rep. Tina Liebling, DFL-Rochester, said she is "very pleased" with Ellison's work.

"People don't take on medical debt because they want to," Liebling said. "Too often, folks get sick and need care but can't afford to pay for it. This is not the patient's fault, but the result of our broken health care financing system."

The report also makes three policy recommendations:

Have all hospitals implement a "presumptive eligibility" process to see if patients qualify for charity care, similar to Mayo Clinic's new process; Create a simplified charity care application that would be uniform across hospitals; Provide a basic income-based eligibility floor for charity care programs.

State Rep. Andy Smith, DFL-Rochester, said they are "good suggestions."

"I think most Minnesotans want hospitals to have some form of charity care, to do it well, to do it responsibly so people can get it," Smith said.

"I believe that health care is a human right," Hicks added. "Policy changes that ensure Minnesotans have access to the health care they need are a top priority for myself and my DFL colleagues. The suggestions in the attorney general’s report are ones we should lean into as we work to improve the system."

With roughly two months left in the Minnesota Legislature's 2025 session, an evenly split House and the state's next two-year budget to square away, Boldon said it's unlikely that lawmakers will take up Ellison's suggestions this year.

"I'm very interested in digging into those (recommendations) and bringing those forward next session," said Boldon, who has introduced a bill on medical debt this session.

While Liebling said the streamlined application form "seems like pretty easy, low-hanging fruit that could be done," she had reservations about the other two recommendations.

"The problem that we have, I think, is that hospitals across the state have very different financial stability pictures," Liebling said. "I don't want to jump on board ... without understanding more of what it would do."

Future policy aside, Ellison's report states that Mayo Clinic's cooperation and changes "demonstrates its interest in serving as a leader in the field for other health systems to follow."

"Mayo's a leader," Ellison said on Saturday, "not just in Minnesota, but in the world. And if they're willing to step up and take serious action on this, so should everybody else."

During a press conference in Rochester on Monday morning related to medical research, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said she was "really glad" the issue was settled.

“I appreciate that the attorney general looked into this and that this resolved in a settlement and that we will have a changed process going forward. That’s how the legal system is supposed to work," she said.

In a statement to the Post Bulletin on Friday afternoon, Mayo Clinic said it does contest some of the findings in the report.

"Mayo will not comment further other than to refer to the 'Allegations' section of the settlement agreement, the language of which was negotiated by the Attorney General‘s office over several months and notably does not include most of the information reflected in the report, which ... the Attorney General admits does not reflect their formal determination," Mayo Clinic said.

The Post Bulletin reached out to U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, U.S. Rep. Brad Finstad, Rochester Mayor Kim Norton, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, the Minnesota Hospital Association and state Rep. Duane Quam, R-Byron, for comment on the report but did not receive responses. A spokesperson for state Sen. Carla Nelson, R-Rochester, said the senator was not able to provide a response before the deadline.

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Attorney General investigation: Mayo Clinic policies acted as 'barrier' in patients' access to charity care

Dené K. Dryden — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 17:02:51 GMT

ROCHESTER — Mayo Clinic has entered into a settlement agreement with the Minnesota Attorney General's Office after an investigation of the health system's charity care practices.

The report, released Friday, March 14, found that "several of Mayo's policies were acting as a barrier to care for Minnesotans unable to pay for services, in a way that went against both the charity care requirements" and Mayo's own mission, wrote Attorney General Keith Ellison.

Some of those findings went against the Hospital Agreement, a voluntary agreement between the attorney general's office and more than 100 Minnesota hospitals, including Mayo Clinic, that regulates billing and debt collection.

"Despite having an operating income in excess of $1 billion most years since 2019," per the report, "Mayo Clinic lagged behind its peers when it came to providing charity care."

During the course of the investigation, which began in December 2022, Mayo Clinic made changes to its charity care practices, some of which will continue under the settlement.

Financial assistance, also known as charity care, is a service all nonprofit hospitals are required to offer under federal law. Low-income patients meeting certain thresholds set by the hospital can have their medical bills partially or wholly forgiven. There are no national requirements that dictate how much charity care a hospital must distribute.

"A hospital's charity care policy is only as generous as its patients' ability to access it," the report says.

The attorney general's office began its investigation after the Post Bulletin published a series of investigative articles on Mayo Clinic's relatively low spending on charity care, compared to its peers, and instances in which patients were sued for their outstanding debt despite being eligible for charity care, had they known about it.

"Since the Rochester Post Bulletin reporting, the Office has received over 120 Mayo Clinic-related complaints from the public about various issues related to medical billing and debt," the report says. Ellison also held a public listening session in September 2023 in Rochester on the topic of medical debt.

In a statement to the Post Bulletin, Mayo Clinic said it has "reached an agreement with the Minnesota Office of Attorney General validating our longstanding commitment to ensuring all patients have access to the care they need, regardless of financial circumstances. After their review, the MN OAG’s factual findings demonstrate that Mayo Clinic adheres to and in many cases exceeds all regulatory guidelines for charity care."

Here are the findings of the attorney general's report, what the settlement requires and what Ellison's office suggests lawmakers do about charity care.

Mayo diverted patients away from charity care

An internal policy document obtained by state investigators instructed Mayo Clinic's billing department employees to "attempt to resolve the balance" before talking about financial assistance, including "ask(ing) the patient if they are able to obtain a bank loan, borrow from a family member, or have a fundraiser to cover" the cost.

Also, one third-party collection agency that Mayo Clinic retained to recoup debt, ARStrat, "at times failed to include language about charity care on its collection notices."

The charity care application was burdensome; some applications went unfinished

The attorney general's report describes Mayo Clinic's charity care application as burdensome, with many patients not finishing the application. In a review of nearly 2,000 debt collection lawsuits between 2019 and 2022, 537 of those patients discussed charity care, but more than half — 290 — "did not return the application."

When patients sent an incomplete application to Mayo Clinic, the report says "Mayo Clinic failed to adequately follow up" to offer help.

"For example, one patient submitted a charity care application that Mayo Clinic denied due to a missing signature," the report says. "Mayo Clinic then sued her for unpaid medical bills."

Mayo sued patients who owed less than $1,000

The state investigation found that Mayo Clinic had sued 30 patients for outstanding debt below $1,000, and sued more than 1,000 others who owed between $1,000 and $5,000.

"Mayo Clinic acknowledged that its litigation thresholds ... were below industry standards and even contravened its own policies," per the report.

Following the Post Bulletin's investigation, an email between senior staff, obtained in the attorney general's investigation, stated that Mayo Clinic was "supposed to stop all" lawsuits for debt under $5,000.

Some patients were asked to pay off debt before scheduling care

For appointment requests from patients with an outstanding balance in collections, Mayo Clinic's Financial Counseling Call Center's pre-appointment review process included questions about the urgency of the care and if the patient was local.

"Physician review was required," per the report. "If these criteria were not satisfied, Mayo Clinic required patients to pay their outstanding debt in full prior to scheduling an appointment."

Mayo's charity care practices have improved

In October 2023, months into Ellison's investigation, Mayo Clinic began taking "significant steps to improve eligible patients' access to charity care," per the report, including a process to screen patients for "presumptive eligibility" — seeing if patients qualified for charity care and, if they did, writing off their outstanding balances.

"The approach involves a monthly assessment of accounts with medical debt and identifying those that were eligible for the charity care program," Mayo Clinic noted in its 2023 tax documents, as previously reported by the Post Bulletin.

Since the state investigation began, Mayo Clinic's charity care contributions have increased. From Oct. 1, 2023, to Aug. 31, 2024, the report says, "Mayo Clinic provided nearly $142 million in charity care to more than 42,700 patients," with the bulk of those patients — 37,500 — receiving aid through the presumptive process.

In its 2024 financial report, Mayo Clinic says its charity care contributions for the year totaled $130 million while it recorded its largest-ever operating margin: $1.3 billion.

Mayo settles with AGO

The health system and the state office have resolved the investigation with a settlement agreement, which compels Mayo Clinic to comply with certain conditions. The settlement was filed in Ramsey County.

The settlement agreement directs Mayo Clinic to:

Keep its charity care eligibility requirements the same — 100% charity care to patients earning up to 200% of the federal poverty guidelines, and 40% to 50% charity care for those up to 400% of that poverty threshold; Screen patients for Medicaid eligibility and charity care, and if the patient is eligible for charity care, "provide a discount in accordance with its charity care policies"; Use a simplified charity care application form; Stop filing lawsuits to recoup medical debt "except in exceptional circumstances," which must first be approved by the chief financial officer.

"Mayo Clinic's cooperation with the Attorney General's investigation and willingness to make changes demonstrates its interest in serving as a leader in the field for other health systems to follow," the report says.

"As noted in the agreement," Mayo Clinic said in a statement, "Mayo Clinic has offered assurances that it will continue the robust financial assistance policies Mayo Clinic has in place and the ongoing enhancements made in recent years to meet the evolving needs of patients."

"Mayo Clinic offers financial assistance programs for patients who are unable to pay, and patients may apply for financial assistance at any point prior to services, during care and after care has been provided," the statement continues. "Mayo Clinic communicates the availability of financial assistance on its website, when patients first register for care, and in all billing statements and related letters and offers free financial counseling to uninsured or underinsured patients."

"The agreement also reflects that Mayo Clinic has voluntarily adopted practices that support patients who are facing financial challenges," the statement continues. "For example, since 2023, Mayo Clinic has expanded the practice of 'presumptive eligibility,' in which qualifying patients receive financial assistance without needing to complete a financial assistance application. Since 2019, Mayo Clinic locations in Minnesota have provided over $600 million in financial assistance to patients. Mayo Clinic continuously evaluates and updates its practices to best serve patients and the community."

What lawmakers can do next, at the AG's suggestion

Though the investigation focused on Mayo Clinic, Ellison wrote that it is "not alone."

"My office has seen that many of the practices outlined in this report are systemic among Minnesota hospitals," Ellison said, "and the law does not go far enough to protect patients from unfair medical debt."

So, the report makes three policy recommendations:

Require hospitals to have a presumptive process for charity care eligibility that doesn't require patients to apply for aid; Require hospitals to use a uniform, simple charity care application form; Create a charity care eligibility "floor" that sets a threshold across hospitals.

Some new laws have already taken effect following the Post Bulletin's investigation. In 2023, state lawmakers passed a law that requires nonprofit hospitals to screen patients for charity care eligibility before enrolling them in a payment plan, sending that debt to collections or denying care. That went into effect in November 2023.

In 2024, Ellison, state Sen. Liz Boldon (DFL-Rochester) and state Rep. Liz Reyer (DFL-Golden Valley) introduced, and successfully advanced, the Minnesota Debt Fairness Act, which keeps medical debt out of one's credit score and ends the automatic transfer of medical debt to a patient's spouse upon the patient's death, among other reforms.

This year, Boldon and Reyer have introduced legislation that would set aside $5 million to be used to buy around $500 million in Minnesotans' medical debt and forgive it.

Ellison's office, in 2023, also began investigating Allina Health after The New York Times reported on that health system's medical billing practices and access to care for patients with debt.

As many as 7.6% of Minnesotans have medical debt in a given year, the report notes, alongside rising health care costs.

Minnesota Attorney General's Report on Mayo Clinic Charity Care by Post Bulletin Docs on Scribd

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Mayo Clinic annual revenue hit an all-time high in 2024

Jeff Kiger — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 14:56:00 GMT

ROCHESTER — Mayo Clinic recorded a record-setting $1.3 billion operating margin in 2024, up 19% from the previous year, with a total $19.79 billion in revenue. It also more than doubled its annual patient charity care spending to $130 million. That was an increase of 124%.

On Wednesday, March 5, the Clinic posted an audited consolidated financial report for 2024 on the Electronic Municipal Market Access website.

Its total revenue in 2024 was up 10.3% from the prior year, when revenues were $17.94 billion. “Solid volumes and increased donor contributions drove revenue growth during 2024,” a statement in Mayo Clinic’s report says.

One of the biggest drivers of the increase was revenue from medical services, which grew by 9.79% to $16.55 billion. That's up from $15.07 billion in the previous year.

Medicare payments accounted for $4.43 billion of the 2024 medical revenue and Medicaid paid $607 million. “Contract” or traditional insurance payments totaled $9.69 billion.

Medical service revenue accounts for 83.6% of Mayo Clinic’s total revenue. Of the $16.55 billion in that revenue category, $15.5 billion came from patient care services and $1.01 billion came from “external lab” services.

Outpatient visits at all Mayo Clinic campuses jumped by 11.7%, to 5.4 million visits in 2024. That's up from 5.22 million visits in 2023 and 4.90 million visits in 2022. Admissions increased by 7.4%, to 131,599, and surgical cases climbed to 155,086 from 149,934 in 2023.

“Contributions available for current activities” from donors also drove up revenue. Total contributions climbed by 26%, to $540 million, compared to $428 million the previous year.

Other areas of revenue growth from 2023 to 2024 included increases in retail pharmacy sales (up to $660 million from $530 million) and “oil and gas producing activities” (up to $83 million from $75 million).

One of the biggest increases in the 2024 financial report was Mayo Clinic’s charity care spending, which more than doubled from $58 million in 2023. Charity care spending totaled $130 million in 2024. That is the most that Mayo Clinic has ever spent on charity care.

The previous high was $96 million in 2019. Mayo's lowest total over the past 20 years was $49 million, recorded in 2021.

Mayo Clinic did not respond to questions for this story, including questions about what factors drove the charity care increase.

Mayo Clinic's financial assistance policy — something all nonprofit hospitals in the U.S. are required to have — states that patients with a household income of up to 400% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines can qualify for a 50% reduction of their medical bill, and those making 200% or less of the Federal Poverty Guidelines could qualify for free care.

The health system's charity care contributions were the subject of two Post Bulletin investigations in 2022. The investigations found that, compared to other hospitals, Mayo Clinic spent a smaller share of its expenses on charity care, and that several patients who were sued over unpaid medical bills could have qualified for discounted or free care, had they known about the charity care program.

On the expense side of the ledger, salaries and benefits for Mayo Clinic’s 83,000 employees, about 57,000 in Minnesota, grew to $10.48 billion in 2024. That’s up 8.4%, from $9.66 billion in 2023. Salaries accounted for 56% of Mayo Clinic’s total 2024 expenses.

“The increase is attributed to staff growth to accommodate higher volumes, an average 4.4% annual salary increase for all allied health staff and staff appreciation payments,” stated the financial report.

One expense that decreased by 58% was Mayo Clinic’s “cash payments for income tax.” Those cash payments dropped to $26 million in 2024 from $62 million the previous year.

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Trading skates for a sled, Bemidji’s Lucy Solheim battles cancer to stay close to the game she loves

Jared Rubado — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:42:10 GMT

During a summer hockey practice in 2021, Lucy Solheim awkwardly leaned over to pick up a puck off the ice.

It was a normal, run-of-the-mill day for the Bemidji seventh grader until her dad noticed something was off.

“I’d been having nerve pain before that practice, but he saw I was bending down weird,” Solheim recalled. “He called a doctor and we got an appointment set up. When I had an MRI a few days later, they found a tumor.”

Solheim was diagnosed with myxopapillary ependymoma. It’s a rare, slow-growing type of brain or spinal cord tumor that originates from ependymal cells, which line the central canal of the spinal cord.

The initial test revealed one tumor, which she compared to the size of a sausage. After meeting with a doctor at the University of Minnesota, a separate test showed a second smaller tumor lodged in her spine.

Solheim had four tumors in total, with two more in her brain. In a matter of weeks, she felt the consequences of life’s most unfair circumstance. At 12 years old, Solheim was a cancer patient.

Since that practice in July 2021, Solheim has undergone two surgeries to remove spinal tumors, while the other two in her brain sit idle. She powered through a six-week radiation treatment and suffers from permanent nerve damage in her left leg.

In sports, time is undefeated; it catches up to every player eventually. Cancer and time worked together to take hockey away from Solheim before she was old enough to attend high school.

“I was never told I had to stop playing, but it just got to a point where I physically couldn’t do it,” she said. “I couldn’t keep up with anything anymore. I wasn’t really enjoying it anymore and it was hard for me. I’d been playing my whole life, and making that decision was really tough.”

However, Solheim decided to take hockey back.

After hanging up her skates following her eighth-grade season with the Bemidji High �� girls hockey team, she transitioned to the role of manager. Solheim also found a way to keep competing on the ice in the form of sled hockey.

The road often traveled

The Solheim family put a lot of miles on their car in 2021.

After pushing through her first surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester on Aug. 13, Solheim was told on a Google Meet session with her doctor that she needed radiation. It’s a process intended to shrink and slow the growth of the remaining tumors.

“The worst part is losing your hair,” Solheim said. “But I thought it was going to be way worse than it was. I have a great community around me that helped me. At school, I could wear a hat. I knew nobody would make fun of me but I was still nervous. I was the girl that didn’t have hair at school, and that scared me.”

It’s also a process that required her to be at the Mayo Clinic for six weeks. Meggen Solheim, Lucy’s mother, drove her to Rochester every Sunday night for a month and a half. They rented an apartment and stayed until Friday afternoon each week before driving back to Bemidji.

Despite the circumstances, Lucy was given the leeway to keep playing hockey during her radiation treatment. Meggen reached out to a 15U girls hockey team in Rochester and asked if she could skate with them during weekdays.

“We knew she’d have a lot of downtime even after her school work,” Meggen said. “We just wanted to give her something to look forward to and something she felt she was a part of. We found an email for the team in Rochester on their youth hockey home page, and they were amazing. Their coach told us to bring her whenever she wanted.”

Once her treatment ended, Lucy returned to Bemidji and rejoined her 12U hockey team. But she couldn’t hide what cancer had done to her playing ability.

“My leg just wasn’t right after surgery,” Lucy said. “I was limping a lot, I’d trip a lot and was really weak in my leg. I played the rest of my last 12U season — the season we went to state — and it was a really hard year for me. Skating was really hard. I couldn’t skate fast, I couldn’t skate backward that well. It wasn’t painful, I just couldn’t do it. I was just weak, I couldn’t run or jump anymore.”

Lucy stuck with it for one more year. But once the sport became something she couldn’t keep up with, she felt like she had no choice but to stop.

“We were really sad,” sophomore teammate Bailey Rupp said. “Like it’s hard for all of us, but super hard for her to hear that she can’t play anymore. But we knew she’d always be a part of our team and be our manager because we wouldn’t be a team without her. We need her with us because she’s such a huge part of our team.”

Prior to her freshman year in high school, Lucy embraced her new role as the Lumberjacks’ manager.

“My sister was still playing, and I have a lot of friends on the team, too,” Lucy said. “I figured, why not be the manager so I can still be with my friends and my sister, right? Last season, I didn’t miss it that much. But this season, not being able to play and watching my friends play, it just made me want to be out there so bad.”

Tough sledding

In just a few weeks after her managerial debut, Lucy approached her parents with a new proposition.

While at Top Shelf, Bemidji’s local hockey retailer, Lucy saw USA sled hockey world champion Chloe Kirkpatrick, who was a senior at BHS at the time. While they didn’t officially cross paths, Lucy felt inspired to give sled hockey a chance.

Her parents came in contact with Hope Inc., a 501c3 nonprofit organization in the Fargo-Moorhead area that provides family-friendly sporting and recreational opportunities critical to the health and development of children and adults.

Kirkpatrick got her start in sled hockey with Hope Inc.

“We made one phone call and it took off from there,” Meggen said. “They went above and beyond to get us on a call and get us to Moorhead that weekend. They wanted her to join, and it’s been arms wide open ever since. Her coach helped her get a grant to help pay for her sled. We’re still new to it, we’re still rookies, but they get us anything we could ever need.”

Lucy’s first sled hockey practice was in October 2023. Since then, she’s traveled to Moorhead nearly every Saturday to play.

“It’s weird because you don’t use your legs at all,” Lucy said. “You have to use your arms to push yourself around everywhere, and it’s really hard to learn at first. Your arms are burning because you’re so tired.”

Lucy said it took one practice to get over her trepidations about playing for a new team in a new sport. She also said it took five or six practices to feel comfortable playing on a sled.

Since then, Lucy has competed in a sled hockey tournament with Hope Inc. Last weekend, she played in a jamboree.

Hope Inc. also played in a sled hockey game against the North Dakota State football team before taking the ice against the North Dakota men’s hockey team at the Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks, N.D.

“It gave her a chance to play the sport she loves and play it competitively,” Meggen said. "She just couldn’t skate anymore like she used to. She still can’t lift that left leg. There are times when she feels she’s missing out on something, but she’s still part of the team. But sled hockey is her thing now, and it’s amazing.”

Lucy officially met Kirkpatrick at a BHS practice earlier this season.

“She told me all about her (experiences) playing sled hockey,” Lucy said. “She told me about how she puts her blades in her sleds and how she cuts her sticks. She’s been a big role model for me.”

Second scare

Lucy was approaching the third anniversary of her first surgery last summer. She thought that chapter of her life was firmly behind her.

Every four months, Lucy received regular testing to monitor the three remaining tumors in her body. While the two in her brain hadn’t grown, the smaller one in her back had.

The news of a second operation looming was a shock, to say the least. Lucy did not feel pain of any kind prior to the examination.

“We were blindsided when we found out she had to have another surgery,” Meggen said. “We knew the tumor was there, and you’re always kind of on your toes. Every appointment she has comes with nervousness, but you have to get through it because you don’t want her thinking she can’t do it. You have to be strong for yourself, for her and your whole family.”

Despite having gone through the process once before and being three years older, Lucy feared the worst was yet to come.

“She took it really hard because she knew what she went through to get everything back that she lost after the first radiation treatment,” Meggen said. “We were in a really good stage, but we were so nervous that it was going to set her back and make it hard for her to walk. She was worried she was at ground zero again.”

Luckily for Lucy, she avoided another radiation treatment. She now receives spinal scans every four months and brain scans every eight months.

Prior to her second surgery, Lucy was granted a Make-A-Wish. The Solheims took a trip to Hawaii. The day they returned home, they drove back to the Mayo Clinic for her operation.

“My parents — my whole family, really — are so special to me,” Lucy said. “They’ve supported me so much. I’m just so grateful to have that in my life. To have good parents like that to help you go through this is amazing.”

Team embrace

Despite the Bemidji girls hockey season ending on Feb. 8, the Lumberjacks have continued practicing at the BCA. And for the first time since trading her skates for a sled, Lucy is playing hockey with her lifelong friends.

“She wasn’t sure how to introduce her sled hockey life to people,” Meggen said. “Everybody had questions, everybody was so supportive of her. They all wanted to know when her next game was and how she played. Just the embrace she felt from her friends was so special. To know Lucy is to love Lucy, and those girls love Lucy so much.”

Her battle with cancer has given her teammates a new perspective.

“Lucy is just Lucy,” Rupp said. “She has the best personality. We all love her, and she’s such a good person. She’s always been our best friend. She’s our glue because of the energy she brings to the rink every day. She reminds us of everything we have.”

Meggen noted that she had reservations about how Lucy’s diagnosis would change things in her social life. However, she was immediately reminded of the strong bond between Lucy and her friends.

“That group played 8U, 10U and 12U together, and they’re rock stars,” Meggen said. “Their families have been amazing to us and so welcoming. They helped us through some really tough days, but we’ve always done everything together. Those kids have never treated Lucy any differently. They treat her like the same Lucy they knew when they were 8 years old.”

Meggen has also found solace in the support system the local hockey community provided her family.

“Man, there were some long and tough days,” Meggen said. “You don’t know what’s around the corner for you and your family. You can wake up and think everything is fine, and then it’s not. We are so lucky that Lucy has so many tight friends, and that comes with parental support. For us, it’s leaning on our friends, family and faith.”

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Sen. Liz Boldon, AG Keith Ellison propose buying, forgiving Minnesotans’ medical debt

Dené K. Dryden — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 22:32:13 GMT

ROCHESTER — A Rochester DFL senator is teaming up with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison again for a bill that would set aside money to buy, then forgive, Minnesotans’ medical debt.

Last week, Sen. Liz Boldon introduced the Minnesota Medical Debt Reset Act in the state Senate. Rep. Liz Reyer, DFL- Eagan, sponsors the House version of the bill.

"Medical debt isn’t like other types of debt,” Boldon said in a press release from Ellison’s office. "No one chooses to have an extended stay in a hospital. No one plans on having their appendix burst or having a heart attack. Medical expenses shouldn’t be treated like a loan for a business. It doesn’t have to be this way."

The bill would set aside $5 million from the state’s general fund. That one-time allocation would then be used to purchase, at a discount, an estimated $500 million in medical debt from 250,000 to 400,000 Minnesotans. Those debts would then be forgiven.

"When passed, this bill will be a win for struggling Minnesotans who didn’t choose to get sick and who didn’t ask for the debt that came along with that," Ellison said. "It will support our hospitals by helping them fulfill their commitment to community well-being, while also getting uncollectable debt off their balance sheets. And at a time when the politics of cruelty are on full display in the White House, it will be a beacon that Minnesota’s commitment to helping our neighbors remains as strong as ever."

Along with the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, the Minnesota Medical Debt Reset Act was crafted in partnership with Undue Medical Debt, a nonprofit. The one-time $5 million allocation would be granted to Undue Medical Debt to buy Minnesotans’ medical debt.

"Undue Medical Debt works with (health care) providers and commercial debt buyers on the secondary market to purchase that uncollectable medical debt in bundled portfolios for pennies on the dollar, then erases it," the press release states. "On average, $1 is able to relieve up to $100 in medical debt."

If the bill becomes law, Minnesotans will not directly apply for debt forgiveness — Undue Medical Debt would verify Minnesotans’ eligibility for medical debt relief. To qualify, a person must either have medical debt equal to or above 5% of their household income, or have a household income at 400% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines or lower.

"Minnesotans who qualify for debt forgiveness will receive Undue Medical Debt branded letters out of the blue in the mail notifying them that some or all of their debt has been erased," the press release states.

The newly introduced bill follows 2024’s Minnesota Debt Fairness Act, also authored by Boldon and Reyer. That legislation, signed into law by DFL Gov. Tim Walz last June, made several changes, including a requirement that health care providers cannot withhold medically necessary care from a patient due to their outstanding bills.

The Minnesota Medical Debt Reset Act mirrors the City of St. Paul’s Medical Debt Reset Initiative, which began last year. Also working with Undue Medical Debt, the city is using $1.1 million in American Rescue Plan funding to forgive medical debt for qualifying city residents. So far, St. Paul has relieved 32,000 residents of $40 million in medical debt.

A 2022 Post Bulletin investigation into Mayo Clinic’s financial assistance, or charity care, practices found that some patients were sued over their unpaid medical bills, despite meeting the criteria to receive discounted or free care. That prompted a new state law that requires nonprofit hospitals to check a patient’s eligibility for charity care before sending their debt to collections.

In 2023, in addition to giving $57.8 million to patients through its charity care program, Mayo Clinic also wrote off almost $90 million of patients’ unpaid bills as bad debt, according to the health system’s tax filings.

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NIH cuts could affect hundreds of medical studies at Mayo Clinic and University of Minnesota

Christopher Ingraham / Minnesota Reformer — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 18:34:40 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota and 21 other states have sued the National Institutes of Health over the Trump administration’s steep cuts to grants that fund medical research in the United States.

If those cuts are implemented, “cutting edge work to cure and treat human disease will grind to a halt,” the attorneys general wrote.

The cuts involve “indirect costs,” which are the expenses of maintaining the laboratories, computer services, staffing and other administrative overhead of academic research. Institutions currently negotiate these costs individually with the federal government.

The NIH’s average indirect cost rate typically runs around 28%, meaning that every dollar of direct research funding is accompanied by 28 additional cents in indirect funding. The new order would cap that rate at 15%, effectively slashing NIH indirect payments in half.

In Minnesota, Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota are the chief recipients of NIH research grants. A preliminary estimate by education policy analyst James Murphy finds that the U stands to lose around $62 million annually under the new formula, while Mayo Clinic would lose about $54 million.

Other Minnesota institutions receiving NIH funding include hospitals, private companies doing medical research, and the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation, according to NIH reports. All told, Minnesota entities stand to lose around $117 million a year, according to Murphy’s estimates.

“The NIH funds critical research into fighting chronic and catastrophic disease in every corner of our country,” Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement. “Its work has an impact on countless families across America and helps keep us healthy and extend our lives.”

Rebecca Cunninghan, president of the University of Minnesota, wrote in a letter to colleagues that the cuts are a “direct attack” on the university’s mission, and that they will “slow and limit medical breakthroughs that cure cancer and address chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.”

The NIH website lists more than 659 University of Minnesota projects funded by the grants in fiscal year 2024. They include research into organ transplantation; elderly patients’ ability to fight off infections; the prevalence of blood cancers in Minnesota; Parkinson’s disease treatments; and immunotherapy treatments for certain types of cancer.

The grants also fund hundreds of studies at Mayo Clinic, which in recent years have included research into treatments for degenerative brain disease, breast cancer, osteoporosis, kidney disease and diabetes.

“NIH is obligated to carefully steward grant awards to ensure taxpayer dollars are used in ways that benefit the American people and improve their quality of life,” the agency said in the statement announcing the cuts.

Ellison has also joined lawsuits against the Trump administration’s executive orders on gender-affirming care, birthright citizenship, and overall federal funding.

This story was originally published on MinnesotaReformer.com
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Minnesota hospitals still offering gender-affirming care amid federal challenges

Dené K. Dryden — Sat, 08 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

ROCHESTER — As a handful of U.S. hospitals suspend certain medical services for transgender youth following an executive order on gender-affirming care, Minnesota hospitals appear to be staying the course.

The Jan. 28 executive order by President Donald Trump states that "it is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist or support" gender-affirming care for minors. The order is being challenged by a federal lawsuit.

Dr. Asa Radix, president of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, responded to the executive order in a statement, saying "policies that restrict or ban access to necessary medical care for transgender youth are harmful to patients and their families."

Last week, hospitals in Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Colorado announced that they had suspended some gender-affirming care services for patients age 19 and younger, the Associated Press reported. Some child patients at NYU Langone Health in New York City had their gender-affirming care appointments canceled, the New York Times reported, prompting New York Attorney General Letitia James to warn hospitals that refusing that service could break state anti-discrimination law.

In Minnesota, multiple hospitals confirmed that they are still offering gender-affirming care, and no hospitals in the state have publicly announced any cuts or pauses that would affect transgender-specific medical services.

Gender-affirming care is an umbrella term for various medical treatments for transgender and nonbinary individuals. Gender-affirming care can include puberty-blocking medications, psychotherapy, testosterone or estrogen hormone therapy and plastic surgery. Surgeries are rarely performed on transgender minors.

In 2023, in response to a wave of anti-transgender legislation across U.S. states, Minnesota passed new laws that protect access to abortion and gender-affirming care. As a "trans refuge" state, Minnesota law shields trans youth, their guardians and their medical providers against legal actions by states that restrict or ban gender-affirming care for minors.

The majority of health systems in Minnesota that offer gender-affirming care — for youth, adults or both — are clustered in the Twin Cities metro. Two exceptions are Mayo Clinic in Rochester and Essentia Health in Duluth.

Mayo Clinic did not respond to the Post Bulletin's request for comment.

There are no changes to gender-affirming care services at Essentia at this time, a spokesperson said.

Spokespeople for M Health Fairview, Allina Health and Children's Minnesota told the Post Bulletin that services at those health systems have not changed. Children's Minnesota specified that it does not offer gender-affirming surgeries.

Likewise, North Memorial Health said in a written statement that it "is not planning any changes to its gender-affirming care approach at this time."

"Access to gender-affirming care hasn’t changed at Hennepin Healthcare," that health system said in a statement to the Post Bulletin. "As Minnesota’s largest public safety net hospital and healthcare system, we remain committed to serving anyone seeking care."

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Minnesota health care experts weigh potential policy shifts under Donald Trump

Mary Murphy — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 12:55:00 GMT

Editor’s note: This is part 4 of 5 in a series examining how the upcoming presidency of Donald Trump may impact greater Minnesota.

ST. PAUL — Minnesota health care leaders are preparing for potential changes as federal policies could evolve during President-elect Donald Trump’s upcoming administration.

From expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies, federal funding for public health institutes and potential tariffs on China, a state like Minnesota, which is a global leader in health care, could be affected positively, negatively or not at all, experts say.

Potential changes to Affordable Care Act

Stephen Parente, a health economist at the University of Minnesota who worked for Trump at the Department of Health and Human Services and the White House Council of Economic Advisers, approaches the new administration with a nuanced understanding of potential impacts for Minnesota.

Enhanced subsidies of the Affordable Care Act that President Joe Biden put in place during COVID-19 are set to expire in 2025. Parente said Republican advisers in Trump’s administration will likely encourage reallocating these subsidies so more people can be covered at a lower cost.

“We haven't really figured out exactly what that mechanism would be, but I know that was the desire to really sort of support individuals more for their health and choices, rather than just getting more and more money into private insurance,” Parente said.

Rose Roach, chair of Minnesota Health Care for All, a Minnesota-based advocacy group, said people are also discussing the possibility of Trump's health care policies favoring funding private insurance options rather than individuals, especially through expanding Medicare Advantage — a plan within Medicare that combines private and public insurance.

Attorney General Keith Ellison warned Minnesotans on Nov. 26 that providers are opting out of Medicare Advantage because they were not being reimbursed quickly enough by privately-owned insurance companies.

“This is why you're seeing so many hospital systems just be like, ‘No thank you’ to these Medicare Advantage patients,” Roach said. “And think about if Mayo did that in southeastern Minnesota. Where would all of those enrollees under Medicare, whether they're retirees or disabled and on Medicare, where would they go?”

But if private funds increase, Parente and Roach said that Minnesota-based companies like UnitedHealth and in turn, Minnesotans, could benefit.

“If UnitedHealthcare gets welfare … it has to pay certainly state taxes, corporate taxes and it is the dominant Fortune 500 firm in the state right now,” Parente said. “There's nothing bigger than it. So if there's more corporate tax revenue, the state definitely benefits from that.”

Parente said people are also concerned about potential “block grants” to Medicaid, in which the federal government would divide the total amount of money allocated for Medicaid among the 50 states.

“Minnesota has one of the most generous Medicaid programs in the country, and so it's one of the concerns about block granting,” Parente said. “The states that didn’t expand Medicaid, that could be a windfall, but for the states that did expand Medicaid, they could lose out.”

But Parente said even with this in mind, Minnesota had an extensive Medicaid program before the Affordable Care Act.

Roach noted how Minnesota’s independent state-specific programs like MinnesotaCare, which help cover low-income individuals, could help Minnesota support its patients independently from federal policies.

Roach said another unique way that Minnesota has acted independently from national health care funds is through a “county-based purchasing model,” which allows counties to purchase health care services for residents enrolled in public health care options like Medical Assistance and MinnesotaCare. Twenty-three greater Minnesota counties currently use the program.

Former Minnesota Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm, who worked as health commissioner under three governors, said Minnesota has always been a leader in not only health care but health insurance.

“Through MNsure and MinnesotaCare, we've taken advantage of opportunities to expand coverage sooner and more aggressively, maybe than some states,” Malcolm said. “We're proud of the fact that we have higher rates of insurance in Minnesota than many states do.”

A study by the Minnesota Department of Health found that 44% of Minnesotans opted for public health insurance in 2023, up from 41% in 2021, compared to a national average of 36%.

Vaccines and Minnesota health care giants

Minnesota’s vaccine rates have been dropping for young children since the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Minnesota Department of Health’s 2023 report, the number of vaccinated kindergartners dropped about 3% from 2020 to 2023. Minnesota’s measles vaccination rates increased in 2023.

Malcolm said she’s worried about how Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s rhetoric around vaccines could influence these rates in Minnesota. Trump has nominated Kennedy to serve as secretary of Health and Human Services.

“The disinformation that he has spread globally about vaccine safety is really hard to overlook as a public health person, and we are very concerned about falling vaccination rates across the country, and it's happening here in Minnesota too,” Malcolm said.

As large entities like the University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic conduct research on things like vaccines, Malcolm said Republican proposals of cutting the National Institutes of Health from 27 to 15 earlier this year could pose a threat to Minnesota in more ways than one.

“It's bad for the health of the state, the physical health of the state and the economic health of the state,” Malcolm said. “Folks at the university and elsewhere have studied and quantified some of the benefits of that research enterprise to the state.”

But Roach said it’s less so Minnesota’s large institutions she’s expecting to be affected by Trump’s proposal — as she said they are “largely insulated from national policy” — but more so patients as shifts in insurance coverage loom.

Parente said he could see larger Minnesota corporations being affected by potential tariffs that Trump has proposed.

“Medtronic has an entire facility over there, a (research and development) unit in China, and although it's, in effect, owned by Medtronic, it is a joint venture,” Parente said. “There will be consequences if products that are made decidedly cheaper there, after additional tariffs and tariffs in ways that raise the price.”

Louis Johnston, a Minnesota economist and St. John’s University professor, said health care is one of the main sectors of Minnesota’s industries that could see changes from tariffs.

“For example, if you're making medical devices in Minnesota, one of the things that the Trump administration might do is put a tax on imports of electronic components from China,” Johnston said. “Well, that would make it either more expensive or really difficult to make those medical devices in Minnesota because you can't get the components.”

A recent report on Minnesota’s exports from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development shows that optical and medical exports remain Minnesota’s biggest market at $1.12 billion.

Parente said the biggest way he sees federal policy impacting a health care giant in Minnesota like Mayo is through cost of labor, but that policy on this is not as likely as Trump’s promises to reduce prescription drug costs, for example.

“Mayo is a major destination, and it has an incredible demand,” Parente said. “But really the biggest input for the medical system is labor, and there's really not much looking at policy that's going to impact labor.”

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