Hennepin Healthcare to cut five programs, 100 jobs amid cash crisis

Hennepin Healthcare, the county‑run system that operates Hennepin County Medical Center in downtown Minneapolis, says it will close or sharply reduce five programs and cut about 100 positions as it tries to navigate what its co‑administrator calls a financial crisis that puts the system in “real jeopardy.” Announced Monday at a news conference, the changes will shut down chiropractic and acupuncture services; close the standalone sleep clinic while shifting screening to primary care; fold interventional pain treatments and weight‑management care into primary‑care and specialty clinics; and end HCMC’s nursing‑home/extended‑care model by transitioning those patients to other systems while moving older adults into primary‑care settings. Dr. J. Kevin Croston blamed falling federal support, county budget strain, and the loss of the county’s historic ability to backstop HCMC, calling it a "perfect storm" but insisting there is still a path forward if painful restructuring happens now. The cuts arrive as the Hennepin County Board has already voted to retake direct control of Hennepin Healthcare’s governing body because of its worsening finances, with a formal plan on how to stabilize the system due to commissioners by July; union responses and patient worries about access to pain, sleep, weight and geriatric care are already surfacing across social media. For Twin Cities residents who rely on HCMC as the region’s main safety‑net and Level I trauma center, the message is blunt: the system is bleeding cash badly enough that non‑core services and 100 jobs are on the chopping block, and the county may not be able to bail it out the way it once did.