AG Keith Ellison announced that his office has obtained a settlement with Mayo Clinic that requires Mayo to change its charity care and debt collection practices.  According to the terms of the settlement, Mayo Clinic must provide charity care to certain presumptively eligible patients and streamline their charity care application process. The settlement also prohibits Mayo Clinic from suing to collect medical debt in other than extraordinary circumstances. The settlement resolves the Attorney General’s investigation, announced in December 2022 after allegations reported in the Rochester Post-Bulletin that Mayo had sued patients who may have qualified for charity care to collect medical debt.  The Attorney General’s investigation found that, among other things, Mayo Clinic’s policies included barriers to patients’ access to charity care and Mayo Clinic engaged in aggressive debt-collection practices in contravention of the Minnesota Hospital Agreement and its charitable mission and values. As a result of the investigation and Mayo’s cooperation with it, the percentage of Mayo’s operating expenses provided to charity care in 2024 rose to the highest level in more than five years. 

March 14, 2025 Press Release