Minnesota hospital administrators are at the State Capitol Tuesday and urging lawmakers to pass bills to help them as they struggle to stay afloat
Rick Ash is Chief Executive Officer of United Hospital District in Blue Earth County, in southern Minnesota.
"If the legislature waits until more rural hospitals are gone and services are gone, it will not be a policy failure, it will be a moral failure," says Ash.
Time is running out at the Minnesota State Capitol with plenty still to do, including a bonding bill, and a request from Hennepin County to find funds to save HCMC, the state's premier level one trauma center.
But those hospital administrators in Greater Minnesota are urging members of the House to not overlook their issues, and pass a bill that would protect a federal program.
The 340B Drug Pricing Program, established in 1992, requires pharmaceutical manufacturers to sell outpatient drugs at significantly reduced prices (around 20–50% off) to safety-net health care providers, known as "covered entities." That includes qualifying hospitals and federal grantees.
This program enables these organizations to stretch scarce federal resources, reduce medication costs for uninsured and low-income patients, and expand health services. But that program is set to expire next year.
As of early 2026, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine vacated a proposed 340B Rebate Model Pilot Program, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is reconsidering its approach to implementing such a program.
Kimber Wraalstad is the Administrator and Chief Executive Officer at North Shore Health Hospital, based in Grand Marais.
"North Shore Health has benefited from the 340B program, on average about $260,000 a year," says Wraalstad. "But even with those savings, we still have operating losses of greater than $2 million. 340B is not padding profits."
Pharmaceutical companies have sued the state to stop the program, and have spent about a million dollars on an advertising campaign, alleging that administrators are using the money to pad their profits.
The 2024 state law required drug manufacturers to share 340B discounts with every pharmacy a Minnesota hospital has a contract with. Hospitals and clinics have always and will always be able to use 340B money to support services, since it is a federal program, but the Minnesota law under consideration would remove a sunset provision from that 2024 law, and add enforcement language.
"At the end of the day, this is not theoretical, this is not political theater," adds Ash. "This is important. This is about people's lives. This is about communities. It's about health and wellness."
The legislative session is scheduled to come to a close Monday, May 18. That gives lawmakers less than a week to go.
"If the legislature waits until more rural hospitals are gone and services are gone, it will not be a policy failure, it will be a moral failure"
"If the legislature waits until more rural hospitals are gone and services are gone, it will not be a policy failure, it will be a moral failure"
