Essentia Health, Duluth, Minn., and Dakota Clinic/Innovis Health, Fargo, N.D., officials said they have entered into merger talks that would convert the Dakota Clinic/Innovis Health into a private, not-for-profit subsidiary of nine-hospital Essentia. The Dakota Clinic, a for-profit physician group with 22 clinics, owns Innovis Health, a 74-bed taxable not-for-profit hospital.
Peter Person, chief executive officer of Essentia and its subsidiary, four-hospital St. Mary’s/Duluth Clinic Health System, said the deal would create an integrated network across the prospective partners’ markets, which largely overlap in the northwestern Minnesota city of Detroit Lakes. Greg Glasner, chairman of the Dakota Clinic board of directors, said the deal would give the North Dakota system access to much-needed capital.
Essentia reported 2006 income of $16.5 million off $1.07 billion in revenue. Glasner said Dakota Clinic/Innovis Health’s net annual revenue totaled roughly $220 million to $240 million; he did not release net income. Negotiations are expected to continue into the summer; the deal would not involve an exchange of assets, but would give Dakota Clinic seats on Essentia’s governing board. -- by Melanie Evans
