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Minnesota · Fairview Health

Fairview Health: A Debt Collector Pretending to Be A Hospital

Led by CEO James Hereford, Fairview Health is Minnesota's largest medical debt collector. The hospital's predatory behavior puts millions in the pockets of Hereford and other executives—all while the CEO closes hospitals and cuts community care.

Demand Fairview End Its Predatory Debt Collection See the Evidence ↓
01 The Debt Trap

1 in 3Minnesotans with medical debt owe it to Fairview

Minnesota medical-debt lawsuitsDocket view
Fairview is the creditorAll other creditors

Fairview Health is a predatory lender that hides behind the nonprofit hospital badge while aggressively pursuing patients. A 2023 study of consumer debt litigation found that Fairview was responsible for 32% of medical-debt lawsuits.

2× the rateOverall, such consumer debt lawsuits targeted Black and Latino Minnesotans at twice the rate of white people.

Exhibit B 4,000+

medical-debt lawsuits filed in 2024 by Fairview Health Services against patients

Source: Pioneer Press ↗
02 CEO Pay

Fairview's CEO gets rich on the back of patient debt

Patient debt is a profitable business: Fairview CEO James Hereford made $5.2 million in 2023 and he made another $5.6 million in 2024—more than 100 times the salary of an average Fairview employee both years. He's not alone, though—his fellow Fairview executives rake in millions of dollars more each year.

03 Cutting Services

Fairview slashed community care and closed multiple hospitals

Under Hereford's direction, Fairview closed two historic hospitals during the pandemic—St. Joseph's, Minnesota's first hospital, and Bethesda Hospital—while also eliminating about 900 jobs and closing 16 primary care clinics. Since then, Fairview has also reduced community care to a fraction of what the community needs, helping fund the CEO's million-dollar paychecks.

Source: MPR News ↗   AP News ↗

St. Joseph's HospitalMinnesota's first hospitalClosed
Bethesda HospitalA historic St. Paul hospitalClosed
~900 JobsEliminated during the pandemicCut
16 Primary Care ClinicsNeighborhood care, goneClosed

Less than a penny on the dollar

Fairview's 2024 spending, drawn to scale.

Operating expenses$7.9B
Charity care$66M
↑ that sliver is it.
Source: ProPublica ↗
04 Billions in Assets

Fairview's CEO claims poverty, while sitting on billions in assets

Despite suing patients, cutting care, and paying himself millions, Fairview's CEO claimed the hospital was drowning financially in 2022, reporting $315.4 million in operating losses. The reality? Fairview makes billions each year and sits on billions more in total assets. This is hardly the struggling nonprofit it claims to be.

What Fairview claimed · 2022
−$315.4M
"operating losses"

Source: Star Tribune ↗

Poor us?
The reality · 2024
$8Bin operating revenue
Source: ProPublica ↗
$6.5Bin total assets
Source: ProPublica ↗
$126Min investment income
Source: ProPublica ↗
05 Take Action

Fairview isn't a hospital.
It's a debt collection machine.

Fairview Health hides behind the nonprofit label while operating like a predatory lender. It sues patients, abandons communities, and funnels billions into executive compensation. It's time to demand change.

We're calling on Fairview Health to:

  1. Stop suing patients without first informing them of available financial assistance.
  2. Increase charity care to reflect its billions in annual revenue and $6.5 billion in assets.
  3. Implement executive compensation limits tied to community health outcomes.
  4. Commit to transparency about where patient revenue actually goes.
Petition

Demand Fairview end predatory debt collection

Add your name. We'll deliver every signature to Fairview Health's leadership and board.

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