Big financial losses being reported at dozens of Minnesota hospitals.
More than 70 hospitals across the state collectively have lost more than $400 million the first half of this year.
"Which means that access to care across the state in various communities that have a hospital is being threatened, and that's a crisis," says Doctor Rahul Karame who is president and chief executive officer of the Minnesota Hospital Association.
He says almost 70 percent of patients are on a governmental insurance program, like Medicare or Medicaid, and the rates stay the same while the cost of health care goes up.
"That number of underpayment in 2023 is higher than $2 billion," says Karame.
Karame says it's the perfect storm, with a majority of patients on government insurance programs, and the government is not paying its bills.
"It's already causing damage, these hundreds of millions of dollars," Karame says. "They are already chronic delays in care. We know that. Emergency departments are backed up. There are already dangerous diversions from emergency rooms, and hundreds of jobs have already been cut."
He says ultimately that means access to heath care in the state could be in jeopardy if they can't survive financially.