HealthPartners, Essentia plan merger to form 22-hospital system: Questions and answers

Two Minnesota health systems are planning to come together in a mega-merger.

HealthPartners and Essentia Health, both nonprofit systems, announced this week that they are looking to combine and form a single organization.

Under the plans, HealthPartners would acquire Essentia. If the merger comes together, they would form a system with 22 hospitals, more than 100 clinics and 45,000 employees. The combined system would boast more than $12 billion in revenue.

Based in Minneapolis, HealthPartners serves more than 1.4 million patients in Minnesota and Wisconsin and operates health and dental plans with 1.6 million members. The system had more than $9.3 billion in revenue in the 2025 fiscal year, according to S&P Global.

Essentia Health, based in Duluth, Minnesota, serves patients in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. The system had revenues of more than $3.2 billion in the 2025 fiscal year, according to Fitch Ratings.

Here are some key factors to know about the planned deal.

Q: Why is the planned merger happening?

A: Both systems say they see a stronger future by coming together. Andrea Walsh, president and CEO of HealthPartners, and David Herman, MD, CEO of Essentia Health, both cited similar values between the two organizations in a video message.

“Both of our organizations are fundamentally learning organizations committed to improving quality and really wanting to learn and grow and do things differently. It’'s never been more important,” Walsh said.

Herman cited support for the merger in the video.

“As I've talked to colleagues about this, they've said, ‘HealthPartners make sense,’” Herman said. “HealthPartners make sense for us. So it isn't just something that you and I and our leadership teams have seen over the years. It's something that our colleagues have seen as well.”

Q: How will the merger look?

The combined organization will be called HealthPartners, but the Essentia Health brand will remain on its facilities.

Andrea Walsh will lead the organization, while David Herman will hold the title of president of combined clinical care group operations.

Q: What is the timetable?

A: The organizations say that they hope the merger is finalized by Jan. 1., 2027.

Q: What has to happen before the deal is done?

A: The transaction is subject to regulatory review. In Minnesota, the state’s attorney general reviews hospital mergers as a result of a state law passed in 2023.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has invited public comment on the planned merger.

“Proposed healthcare consolidation requires close scrutiny,” Ellison said in a statement this week. “As we have done several times now, we will conduct a thorough review of this potential acquisition to ensure it complies with the law and is in the public interest.”

Q: What are the virtues of the deal?

A: Both systems are touting plans to improve access to care and to make care more affordable. HealthPartners points to its integrated model combining a health plan and care delivery.

“We know how important that partnership between health plans and care delivery is, as a way to finance people's ability to access care,” Walsh said, adding, “The value-based care work our organizations have done historically is just the very beginning of what we want to do next.”

HealthPartners is also pledging better access to specialty care, greater research opportunities, and more chances for career advancement.

Q: How strong are the systems?

A: HealthPartners has enjoyed revenue gains after seeing “weak results” from 2023-2025, according to S&P Global. In September, S&P revised HealthPartners’ outlook from negative to stable after seeing better financial performance. Its revenues are roughly split between its healthcare delivery and insurance plans.

Essentia has also seen better performance of late. In September 2025, Fitch Ratings raised its outlook for Essentia from stable to positive.

Essentia had explored a possible merger with the Marshfield Clinic Health System in late 2022, but in January 2024 the systems said they wouldn’t be moving forward. Sanford Health acquired Marshfield Clinic in 2025.

Q: What’s happening in the Minnesota hospital market?

A: HealthPartners’ planned acquisition of Essentia is the latest in a number of hospital mergers or planned deals this year.

Within the past month, Sanford Health finalized its merger with North Memorial Health, giving the Midwestern health system a presence in the Minneapolis metropolitan area. North Memorial operates two hospitals in the Twin Cities. Even before that deal, Sanford Health has been serving more than 300,000 residents in Minnesota.

Earlier this year, Sutter Health announced plans to merge with Allina Health, based in Minneapolis.

If the deal is finalized, Sutter and Allina would create one of America’s largest health systems, forming an organization with 39 hospitals and $26 billion in revenue. The systems announced a definitive agreement in May to come together. Based in Sacramento, California, Sutter has pledged to invest more than $2 billion in Allina’s markets in Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

Q: Are there more hospital mergers happening nationwide?

A: There is definitely an uptick in hospital deals in 2026, although it’s worth noting that hospital mergers in 2025 fell to a 15-year low. Some analysts say health systems put the brake on deals in the first half of the year to assess federal priorities after President Trump’s return to the White House.

But the pace of deals has picked up in recent months. In the first half of the year, there have been 40 hospital mergers and acquisitions, which nearly matches the 46 hospital deals seen in all of 2025.