Sanford Health to merge as namesake probed

Montana held first place in 2021 but South Dakota is again the most lucrative state to practice medicine thanks to its medical industry triopoly. 

South Dakota’s richest man, Denny Sanford, is the subject of a probe for possession of child pornography even as his namesake plans a merger with an ailing Minnesota medical giant. 

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison's office is investigating the proposed hookup.

The new entity would be called Sanford Health and be run by Sanford’s current CEO. The deal would include the University of Minnesota hospitals, which Fairview purchased in 1997. Sanford Health is named for St. Paul native and University of Minnesota graduate T. Denny Sanford, a philanthropist who made his fortune in the subprime, high-interest credit card business. The Minnesota Nurses Association late Tuesday said its members will “strongly oppose” the proposed merger because it would “put corporate expansion ahead of patient care.” [Minnesota Public Radio]

South Dakota is 22nd in "medical environment," nurses’ salaries still surf the bottom, and the state endures the highest medical costs so why isn’t there a regulatory body like the Public Utilities Commission to regulate medical care costs? Because the state is a corporatist tax haven for an exclusive set of Republicans while over $4 trillion languishes in South Dakota banks and trusts and a career in usury gets your name on a hospital system, an entertainment venue, an underground laboratory or a football stadium.

In 2018 the Rapid City Journal blamed the South Dakota Republican Party for spikes in suicides and depression as a Sanford Health executive also cited poor access to medical care as a reason for premature deaths.

Sanford's lawyer is a Republican who admitted to illegal content on at least one device, but brushed it aside as a hacking, is returning as South Dakota Attorney General. The US Department of Justice has declined comment on whether a federal grand jury has convened or if an indictment is imminent.