That's what I heard too.
I'm not deep in the sources department but I heard something similar about his expectations.
Some donations are just donations, others come with expectations, demands, etc that you might not want to or can't guarantee.
The Merger That Might Have Been: Sanford Health and Fairview Health Services (and U of Minn Hospitals)
When the public learned in late March that Sioux Falls, SD-based Sanford Health was in merger talks with Minneapolis-based Fairview Health Services, it was big news across the Upper Midwest. The news was almost as big when Sanford Health abruptly halted the merger talks in early April, within days of the published reports. Why did Sanford pull out of the talks? The prospect of the two $3 billion hospital systems merging alarmed some Minnesota leaders.
The Minnesota Attorney General, Lori Swanson, called a press conference in late March to express concerns about Fairview assets remaining in Minnesota after a merger, and speculated about the future of the University of Minnesota’s teaching hospital, operated by Fairview, after a merger with an out-of-state entity. She
convened a public hearing on short notice, on a Sunday in early April, and promised additional inquiry into the proposed merger. Two Minnesota state legislators introduced a bill to slow or stop the merger. Facing public suspicion and politicians intent on slowing, if not stopping, the merger, Sanford Health decided to cease merger discussions.
It’s easy to blame the Minnesota AG and politicians for the failure of the two nonprofit hospital systems to complete their exploration of a merger. After all, the AG jumped in before there was a deal to evaluate. It’s also easy to blame Sanford, a hospital system that had been in an eager acquisition mode for many years. However, Fairview Health was all but silent, leaving little known about its viewpoint and motivations. Effectively, Fairview left its out-of-state partner, Sanford Health, to defend its presence rather than acting to explain the perceived benefits to its own citizens. Fairview’s silence may not have been benign, either, as it
had been approached by the University of Minnesota as a potential merger partner.
The story is complex, and does not allow for easy scapegoats. It involves issues of governance, conflicts of interest, regulation, public relations, politics, the changing healthcare marketplace, and even anti-trust considerations. All nonprofit organizations contemplating merger face similar questions, but in few cases do they become so public or so passionate. There was speculation that Denny Sanford would make a gift to the University of Minnesota that would help support the university’s teaching hospital and children’s hospital, allowing those units to be reacquired by the U of M while the rest of Fairview would be merged with Sanford Health. The U of M issued a statement in late March that no such gift was being contemplated and, further, that no gifts of any type would be accepted from Denny Sanford while the Sanford Health-Fairview merger talks were taking place.
The prospect of a $6 billion Sanford-Fairview merger, with out-of-state Sanford Health seen as the more active player, would be more than enough to cause Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson to monitor the merger talks closely and question any decisions the two hospital systems might be prepared to make. Swanson’s office received informal word in 2012 that Fairview and Sanford were beginning to discuss the possibility of a merger or other collaboration. However, it appears that the AG’s office did not receive any updates on the progress of the merger talks until the story became public in March 2013, despite rumors in healthcare circles that a merger was in the offing. Swanson’s public statements were laced with surprise that merger talks could have advanced so far without her being apprised of it. Her call for public hearings was a deliberate attempt, she said, to slow down the process and assure that Fairview, the University of Minnesota, and the state’s citizens would not be harmed by a potential merger, or “takeover,” as many viewed it.
Some have argued that Sanford Health and Fairview had no obligation to communicate with the attorney general, legislature, or media. While this is technically true, it ignores the prudence of recruiting allies who might otherwise be able to thwart your plans. The lack of disclosure and communication made the talks appear secret, with the nefarious connotations the word implies. The connections and conflicts of interest between Sanford Health, Fairview, the University of Minnesota, and T. Denny Sanford become suspect when discovered rather than disclosed.
https://nonprofitquarterly.org/the-...-sanford-health-and-fairview-health-services/
spokesman-recorder.com
