Okay, this story is a few days old, but interesting.
T. Denny Sanford amassed his fortune by selling last-ditch credit cards to consumers with bad credit.
The philanthropist who has poured millions into Sanford Health is known in banking circles for the billions he made with his South Dakota companies First Premier Bank and Premier Bankcard, one of the largest subprime credit card operations in the country.
Now, as Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson looks into merger talks between Sanford Health and Fairview Health Services, some are asking whether Sanford’s background should be part of the debate.
“When I saw that Lori Swanson wanted to open this up, I knew this would come up right away,†said Doug Cummings, director of East River Legal Services in Sioux Falls.
When contacted about Sanford’s business career, Swanson declined to comment.
A key quote in that StarTribune article is a single word from Sanford: he calls Attorney General Swanson’s public hearing on the merger a “non-event.” It takes some arrogance to call public scrutiny of a big merger affecting health resources a “non-event.”
It is also a ‘Non-Event’ anymore when something in Sioux Falls is named after him.
Health care, unless the preventive element takes-off like wild fire (thanks to ObamaCare), will also be a predominantly demand driven economic model, where the consumer is generally placed in a “need situation.”
That said, is Sanford Health really about curing and hopefully preventing health problems, or is it just an ingenious and financially substantial end-around to collections?
I think people who make profits and bankrupt people thru sickness and disease are truly sick.
“Sick,” but rich!
‘You can get anything you want at Sanford’s credit con.’
I was at the real Alice’s restaurant. It’s at the junction of CA 35 & 9 (Cupertino CA). Hardly noticeable & always out of T-shirts. It’s burgers outside on picnic tables. Lots of upscale bikers. While there, a kid drove up with his dad in a rare (vintage, 700K) Ferari. He was teaching his son to drive a stick. Of their 10 or so cars, it was the only one with a standard transmission.
I’m glad this got shot down. Fairview is a pretty good not-for-profit hospital system in the Twin Cities and the operator of the University of Minnesota hospital. I could see Sanford getting cheap and ratcheting down pay rates here. You then lose good doctors, nurses, scientists and other people that make a good hospital. I also didn’t like the idea of control of our 2nd largest hospital system going to an out-of-state entity.
A lot of this got really weird when you had the president of the U of M trying to cut a deal with T. Denny Sanford for alumni donations and sponsorship (he went to the U of M) at the same time that he wants to buy up among other things the U of M hospital and turn it for-profit. Overall Sanford gave up the effort to buy up Fairview pretty quickly and without much of a fight as soon as people (especially MN Atty General Swanson) started to question his motives.
Ok – Just a few things
1) Muqhtar – Sanford health is a non-profit. ( http://sdsos.gov/business/Documents.aspx?cid=NS010743 )
2) T. Denny has not a damn thing to do with Sanford Health.
Yes, he donated 1.5 metric assloads to them for research and they renamed Sioux Valley to Sanford (because he seems to have a fetish for having his name put on things)…but after he wrote the check, he doesn’t have any say about what Sanford Health does. What Sanford Health does and has done is on their own. Their expansions, acquisitions , collections, employee relations, and everything else they do…well…that’s on their own heads. This is a case where T. Denny is actually innocent of all charges.
tl/dr – T. Denny Sanford Health
grr….edited out my not equal sign in the comment…
Regardless I’m glad to see my local hospital (and the hospital that three generations of my family were born in) stay under local control and ownership.
Good post Anthony. Fairview wouldn’t have been at the table if they didn’t need a partner, too bad for them politics (ie Mayo influence) torpedoed what would’ve been a natural fit. I highly doubt Sanford would make cuts like that, they didn’t in Fargo and they don’t need to.
Fun Fact: Sanford Health hasn’t even touched TDS’ donation.
Will always be…the man with the dirty money.
THANKS BRIAN YOU GOT THAT RIGHT AND THEY THOUGHT BRENNAN WAS BAD .