Allina Health Doctors Struck Two Minnesota Hospitals Sept. 14-17 Over Pay, AI Use and Noncompete Clauses
Hospital-based physicians represented by Doctors Council-SEIU walked out at Allina's Mercy and Unity campuses in a four-day unfair-labor-practice strike; no contract was reached and both sides dispute how many doctors took part.
Four Days, Two Numbers, One Word Nobody Can Confirm
On Monday, Sept. 14, 2026, about 150 doctors walked off the job at two Allina Health hospitals in the Minneapolis suburbs — Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids and the Unity campus in Fridley[1][2]. They stayed out through Thursday. The group included hospitalists, OB-GYNs, psychiatrists and critical care doctors, all represented by Doctors Council-SEIU[1][8].
Allina says both hospitals stayed open and patient services weren't disrupted[2]. No contract came out of the four days. And the two sides can't even agree on how many doctors actually struck — a dispute that turns out to hinge on how you count, not who's lying.
Along the way, one phrase spread through nearly every headline: the union calling this the first private-sector hospital physician strike in U.S. history[1][17]. That claim comes from Doctors Council-SEIU itself. No labor agency or independent historian has verified it, and it's worth holding loosely.
What "150 Doctors" Actually Means
The union says roughly 150 physicians struck, about 10% of the doctors at the two hospitals[1]. Allina tells a different story: it says only about half that number actually walked out, and that the union represents about 10% of physicians credentialed at Mercy, with fewer than 4% of Mercy's medical staff on strike[2][7].
Both numbers can be true at once. "Credentialed medical staff" counts every doctor with permission to admit patients at Mercy — including outside and clinic physicians who rarely set foot in the building. The union's count is narrower: the doctors who actually staff the hospital day to day. Each side is using the denominator that makes its case look stronger.
That kind of dispute is common in labor fights, but it matters here because scale is part of the argument. A "historic" strike sounds different if it's 150 doctors than if it's 75. Neither side has offered a number that isn't contested by the other.
Three Years, 50 Meetings, No Deal
The union and Allina have been trying to negotiate a first contract for about three years[8]. In June 2026, members voted 91% to authorize an unfair-labor-practice strike[8]. The union filed the legally required ten-day strike notice on Sept. 4[8].
Allina says the two sides have held roughly 50 bargaining sessions[6]. That's the crux of a familiar standoff: the union reads three years and no contract as proof the company is running out the clock. Allina reads the same 50 meetings as proof it's been at the table the whole time. Both readings fit the same facts.
The union filed this as an unfair-labor-practice strike, not a purely economic one — a legal distinction that matters for how protected the strikers are. Workers on a ULP strike generally have stronger protection against being permanently replaced than workers on an economic strike. That protection depends on the underlying labor-practice allegations holding up, which hasn't yet been decided.
It's also not the first Allina unit to reach this point. A much larger group — about 600 clinicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners — settled its own first contract in April 2026 and ratified it with over 90% support[13]. Whatever is holding up this smaller unit's deal, it isn't that Allina refuses to ever sign one.
Who Gets to Overrule a Doctor
Pay and sick leave are part of the dispute — the union says Allina has proposed pay below what some doctors currently make, and hasn't offered paid sick leave that matches Minnesota's Earned Sick and Safe Time law, in effect since Jan. 1, 2024[3]. But the sharper fight is over artificial intelligence.
Physician Dr. John Wust, a union member, points to AI tools already suggesting diagnostic codes inside patients' electronic medical records as an early sign of a bigger shift[4][5]. The union wants a formal, contractual say over staffing, workload and how AI tools get used in patient care — not a ban on the technology, but a seat at the table before new tools are adopted.
No one involved has pointed to a specific patient who's been harmed by an AI tool at Allina. This is a fight over who approves the next tool, not a response to a disaster that's already happened. That distinction is exactly why it matters to both sides: a governance right, once written into a contract, is hard to take back later, which is what makes it valuable to the union and costly to management.
Allina hasn't laid out a detailed public counter-argument on AI specifically. But hospital systems generally treat clinical software as a tool that physicians already supervise, and resist giving a union formal veto power over new technology — arguing it would slow a hospital's ability to modernize.
Why a Nonprofit Hospital Says It Can't Just Pay More
Allina's core argument is financial, and it's easy to miss next to a picket line. The system says it's facing rising costs for drugs, supplies and labor, more denied insurance claims, and upcoming changes to federal reimbursement[6][7]. In its own words, the negotiations "cannot be divorced from the economics that are impacting both patients and health care systems"[6].
Here's the mechanism that explains why that argument isn't just an excuse: a nonprofit hospital can't set its own prices the way most businesses can. Most of its revenue comes from rates fixed by Medicare, Medicaid and negotiated insurance contracts. So when costs go up, a hospital's only real levers are staffing, service lines, and what it can afford in labor contracts. That's the structural squeeze behind Allina's language about claim denials and reimbursement — not spin, but a description of where the money can and can't come from.
There's also a deadline hanging over all of it. Allina and California-based Sutter Health signed a non-binding letter of intent to combine in March 2026, then a binding merger agreement on May 21, 2026[10][12][20]. The combined system would run about 39 hospitals with roughly 18,000 physicians, and both sides expect the deal to close by the end of 2026, pending regulatory review[12][20].
That timeline pulls the two sides in opposite directions. The union wants terms locked in before an out-of-state buyer takes over, because contracts and pensions are harder to defend after a merger closes[11]. Allina, for its part, wants to hand Sutter a clean deal without a costly, precedent-setting contract attached. Minnesota's attorney general is reviewing the acquisition, and unions across the Allina system have raised concerns about it[10][11].
One more piece of the union's demands turns out to be narrower than it sounds. The union wants noncompete clauses eliminated, but Minnesota already voided noncompetes signed on or after July 1, 2023[15]. A separate federal ban from the FTC was struck down in court and formally pulled from the regulations in February 2026[15]. So a contractual ban here would mostly affect older agreements, plus related clauses the state law doesn't reach, like non-solicitation and confidentiality terms.
A Story That Stayed Local
Coverage of the strike split along familiar lines, though not evenly. Minnesota Reformer and MPR News, both left-leaning outlets, led with the "historic first" framing and put doctors' concerns about AI and years without a contract near the top, with Allina's financial argument appearing lower in the story or not at all[1][3]. The World Socialist Web Site went further, tying the strike to the Sutter merger and a separate hospice nurses' walkout, and criticizing SEIU's own leadership as too cautious[14].
CBS News came closest to straight reporting — a count, a timeline, a cause — and was one of the few outlets to include Allina's claim that only about half the union actually walked out, even while reporting the 150 figure[2]. Local Fox-owned station FOX 9 stuck to plain who-where-when reporting with no editorial framing[9].
What's notably missing is national right-leaning coverage. Outlets like Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post don't appear to have covered the strike at all, and neither did major international outlets like the BBC or Al Jazeera. The story stayed almost entirely within Minnesota and national center-to-left U.S. media — which is itself worth noting when weighing how widely the union's "historic first" framing actually got tested.
The party with the least public voice in any of this may have the most at stake. Sutter Health, which will inherit whatever contract eventually emerges from this fight, has said almost nothing publicly about the strike itself. Whether the two sides reach a deal before the merger closes at the end of 2026 remains open.
Summary
About 150 doctors at two Allina Health hospitals in the Minneapolis suburbs walked off the job on Monday, Sept. 14, 2026, and stayed out through Thursday, Sept. 17[1][2]. They work at Mercy Hospital's Coon Rapids campus and the Unity campus in Fridley. The group includes hospitalists, OB-GYNs, psychiatrists and critical care doctors. They are represented by Doctors Council-SEIU. The union says it is the first strike by private-sector hospital doctors in U.S. history[1][17]. That claim comes from the union itself and has not been independently verified by a labor agency.
The two sides have been negotiating a first contract for about three years[8]. The union says Allina has offered pay below what some doctors now make, has refused paid sick leave that matches Minnesota's Earned Sick and Safe Time law, and will not give doctors a formal say over staffing, workload, or how artificial intelligence gets used in patient care[3][5]. The union also wants noncompete clauses gone. Allina says it has held about 50 bargaining sessions, has made progress, and cannot ignore its own finances — rising costs for drugs, supplies and labor, more denied insurance claims, and expected federal reimbursement changes[6][7].
The sharpest factual dispute is over scale. The union says roughly 150 doctors struck, about 10% of the physicians at the two hospitals[1]. Allina told reporters only about half of that group actually walked out, and said the union represents about 10% of doctors credentialed at Mercy, with fewer than 4% of Mercy's medical staff on strike[2][7]. Both figures can be true at once, because they count different things — see below. Allina said both hospitals stayed open with no cut in services[2].
No contract came out of the four days. The walkout landed in the middle of a bigger change: in March 2026 Allina agreed to be acquired by California-based Sutter Health, a deal the two systems expect to close by the end of 2026, pending regulators[10][12]. Minnesota's attorney general is reviewing it, and unions have objected[10][11].
The Event
About 150 physicians represented by Doctors Council-SEIU began a four-day strike at Allina Health's Mercy Hospital campus in Coon Rapids, Minn., and its Unity campus in Fridley on Monday, Sept. 14, 2026[1][2]. The union had filed the legally required ten-day strike notice on Sept. 4[8]. The strike ran through Thursday, Sept. 17, and included a rally[3]. Allina Health said both hospitals continued normal operations and that services were not disrupted[2]. The two sides did not reach a contract during or immediately after the walkout.
Undisputed Facts
- The strike ran from Monday, Sept. 14, 2026, through Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, at Allina's Mercy Hospital Coon Rapids campus and its Unity campus in Fridley[1][2].
- The striking physicians are represented by Doctors Council-SEIU and include hospitalists, OB-GYNs, psychiatrists and critical care doctors[1][8].
- The union filed the required ten-day strike notice on Sept. 4, 2026[8].
- This bargaining unit has been negotiating a first contract with Allina Health for about three years and has not reached one[8].
- Unit members voted in June 2026 with 91% support to authorize an unfair-labor-practice strike[8].
- Allina Health says the parties have held roughly 50 negotiating sessions[6].
- Allina Health stated that both hospitals remained open and that patient services were not disrupted during the strike[2].
- A separate, larger Allina unit of about 600 doctors, physician assistants and nurse practitioners reached a tentative first contract in April 2026 and ratified it with over 90% support[13].
- Allina Health and Sutter Health of California signed a non-binding letter of intent to combine in March 2026, then signed a definitive merger agreement on May 21, 2026; the combined system would have about 39 hospitals and roughly 18,000 physicians, with closing expected by the end of 2026 pending regulatory review[10][12][20].
- Minnesota law makes noncompete agreements signed on or after July 1, 2023, unenforceable; the separate federal FTC noncompete ban was vacated by a Texas federal court in 2024 and formally removed from the Code of Federal Regulations in February 2026[15].
The Pressure
Strip away the moralizing and blame. What structural realities persist regardless of which narrative wins?
- The merger clock
- Allina and Sutter Health signed a non-binding letter of intent in March 2026 and a definitive merger agreement on May 21, 2026, with closing expected by the end of 2026[10][12][20]. That deadline pulls both sides in opposite directions. The union wants terms locked in before an out-of-state owner arrives, because contracts and pensions are harder to defend afterward[11]. Allina wants to hand over a clean balance sheet without a precedent-setting contract attached. The bargaining calendar and the deal calendar are the same calendar.
- A hospital cannot set its own prices
- Most of a nonprofit hospital's revenue is fixed by Medicare, Medicaid and negotiated insurer rates, not by what it charges. So when costs rise, the system's only real levers are staffing, service lines and labor contracts. That is why Allina keeps returning to claim denials and reimbursement changes[6][7] — not as an excuse but as a description of where the money can and cannot come from.
- First-contract attrition is a known tactic and a known grievance
- Newly organized units often take years to reach a first agreement. Three years here, across roughly 50 sessions, is long but not unusual[6][8]. The union reads that delay as bad-faith attrition; the employer reads the same 50 sessions as evidence of engagement. The same fact supports both stories, which is why the ULP filing exists — it puts the question to the National Labor Relations Board instead of to the press.
- AI is a bargaining wedge before it is a clinical crisis
- What doctors described is real but early: AI suggesting diagnostic codes inside the electronic record, and growing use of AI in documentation and decision support[4][5]. No party has alleged a specific patient harmed by an AI tool at Allina. The fight is over who gets to approve the next tool, not over a disaster that already happened. That makes it a governance demand, which is exactly what makes it valuable to the union and expensive for management.
Material realityTwo hospitals in the Minneapolis suburbs stayed open for four days while a minority of their physicians picketed outside[2]. Allina reports roughly $6 billion in annual revenue[1]. The union covers about 150 doctors; Allina says that is about 10% of the physicians credentialed at Mercy and that fewer than 4% of Mercy's medical staff were striking[1][7]. Those two percentages are not a contradiction — 'credentialed medical staff' counts every doctor with privileges to admit patients, including independent and clinic physicians who rarely set foot in the building, while the union's number counts the doctors who actually staff the hospital day to day. Each side picks the denominator that helps it. On noncompetes, the underlying legal ground has already moved: Minnesota voided noncompetes signed on or after July 1, 2023, and the federal FTC ban was struck down and formally removed from the regulations in February 2026[15]. So a contractual ban would mostly reach older agreements and adjacent clauses — non-solicitation and confidentiality terms — that the state ban does not touch. One more structural fact: Allina's much larger clinician unit of about 600 settled and ratified in April 2026 with over 90% support[13]. Whatever is blocking this unit's contract, it is not that Allina will never sign one.
Narrative as a weaponThree parties are actively shaping how you read this. The union wants you to see a historic first — doctors, the most credentialed workers in the building, driven to the picket line — and it wants the AI question at the center, because 'who controls your diagnosis' is a far stronger public argument than 'our raise is too small.' Allina wants you to see a small slice of its medical staff, roughly half of whom it says stayed at work, and to see a nonprofit squeezed by insurers and Washington rather than a company holding out. Local and left-leaning outlets have largely run the union's frame in the headline and Allina's in the fourth paragraph, which is a real tilt even where the facts are accurate. Meanwhile the party with the least visible voice has the most at stake: Sutter Health, which will inherit whatever contract this becomes and has said almost nothing in public. And one caution on the most-repeated line in all the coverage — 'first private-sector physician strike in U.S. history' comes from Doctors Council-SEIU, not from a labor agency or an independent historian, and no reviewed outlet verified it independently.
How Each Side Sees It
Each major actor’s view — how it frames things, its underlying incentive, and how it’s materially affected. Tap a side to read it.
Frames it asThe union's core argument is not mainly about money. It is about who decides what happens to a patient. Its best advocates put it this way: a doctor's clinical judgment is a duty owed to the patient, not a service owed to an employer. When a hospital or a software tool overrides that judgment, the doctor still carries the license and the liability. So doctors need a contractual seat at the table on staffing, workload and any AI tool that touches diagnosis[3][5]. Dr. John Wust, a union physician, pointed to AI already suggesting diagnostic codes inside the electronic medical record as the leading edge of that shift[4][5]. On pay, the union's claim is narrower and sharper than 'we want a raise': it says Allina has proposed terms that pay some doctors less than they make now[3]. On sick leave, it says Allina has refused to provide paid time that complies with Minnesota's Earned Sick and Safe Time law, in effect since Jan. 1, 2024[3]. And it frames three years without a first contract as the real unfair labor practice — that a company can simply outlast a newly organized unit[8].
WhyWin a first contract, and set a template. Doctors Council is the largest private-sector provider union in the country and has been building physician units; a first agreement covering AI governance would be a precedent it can carry to other systems[13]. It also wants leverage before the Sutter acquisition closes, because contracts and pensions are easier to lock in before an out-of-state buyer takes over[11][18].
Impact on themStrikers lose pay for the days out and risk friction with colleagues who kept working — Allina says about half the unit did[2]. Because the union filed this as an unfair-labor-practice strike rather than an economic one, members claim stronger protection against permanent replacement. If the ULP allegations are not sustained, that protection is weaker. Three years without a contract also means no negotiated raises over that stretch[8].
Frames it asAllina's strongest case is financial and structural, and it is easy to miss because it is less vivid than a picket line. The system says its own costs for drugs, supplies and labor are rising, insurers are denying more claims, and federal reimbursement changes are coming[6][7]. A nonprofit hospital cannot raise prices the way a normal company can — most of its revenue is set by Medicare, Medicaid and negotiated insurer rates. So a pay package it cannot fund has to come out of something else: staffing, services, or other workers' contracts. In its own words, these negotiations 'cannot be divorced from the economics that are impacting both patients and health care systems'[6]. On scale, Allina argues the strike's reach was overstated: the union covers about 10% of physicians credentialed at Mercy, and fewer than 4% of Mercy's medical staff were set to strike[7]. On AI, management's general position across the industry is that clinical software is a tool physicians already supervise, and that handing a union a veto over technology adoption would freeze a hospital's ability to modernize. Allina also notes it reached and ratified a contract with its much larger 600-member clinician unit in April 2026, which it offers as evidence it bargains in good faith[13].
WhyClose the Sutter deal cleanly and cheaply. A costly precedent-setting contract — especially one giving a union formal say over technology — is a liability an acquirer prices in. Allina also has to avoid a deal that other unions in the system immediately demand to match[11].
Impact on themAllina reports roughly $6 billion in annual revenue[1]. Covering a strike means paying for replacement and overtime staffing for four days. Reputationally, a doctors' strike is unusual enough to draw scrutiny while a regulator reviews its acquisition[10].
Frames it asPatients in Coon Rapids and Fridley are not a party to the bargaining but bear the result either way. The union's pitch to them is that short-staffed, burned-out, AI-second-guessed doctors make worse decisions. Allina's pitch is that services stayed open and uninterrupted through all four days, and that money spent on one small unit's contract is money not spent on the broader care system[2][6]. Both are arguments about patient interest. Neither has been independently measured here.
WhyContinuity of care and stable local hospital services.
Impact on themAllina says there was no disruption to services during the strike[2]. Allina is separately under investigation by Minnesota's attorney general over its billing and debt-collection practices, a matter unrelated to this contract fight but part of why the system faces local skepticism[19].
Frames it asThe state's role is indirect but real. Minnesota already voided noncompete agreements signed on or after July 1, 2023, which means the union's demand to 'end noncompetes' bites mainly on older agreements and on related clauses the ban does not reach — non-solicitation terms, confidentiality terms, and trade-secret agreements all remain legal[15]. The attorney general's office has shown willingness to investigate health systems over physician noncompetes, having opened such a probe into a different Minnesota system, Aspirus Health[19]. Separately, the AG is reviewing the Sutter acquisition[10].
WhyEnforce state labor and consumer-protection law, and evaluate whether an out-of-state acquisition serves Minnesota patients.
Impact on themA merger review is the state's main point of leverage here. Unions have used that review to press for guarantees on contracts and pensions[11][18].
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The Bias Ledger average rating 4.4
The same story, as framed by outlets across the spectrum, ordered least to most biased. The bias score (1 = straight, 10 = heavily spun) is an AI assessment of that framing — click an outlet to see its track record. The tell is the word choice or omission that reveals the angle.
| Outlet | Vantage | Bias | How they frame it | The tell |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CBS News | U.S. center | 2 | '150 Allina Health doctors start four-day strike after contract negotiations fail' | Closest to straight reporting: a count, a duration, a cause. Notably it is one of the few to publish Allina's counter-claim that only about half the unit actually walked out — a detail most coverage left out even while using the 150 figure. |
| FOX 9 | U.S. center (Fox-owned local station; local newsroom, not the national opinion brand) | 2 | 'Allina doctors at Mercy, Unity hospitals begin 4-day strike Monday' | Plain local-TV framing — who, where, when, how long. No characterization of the dispute. The notable thing is what it shows about the national picture: the story stayed local, and national right-leaning outlets did not pick it up. |
| MPR News | U.S. center-left (public radio, member- and foundation-funded) | 4 | 'Allina Health's doctors strike takes on AI diagnoses' and 'Doctors strike, rally for contract with Allina' | Elevates AI to the headline even though pay and sick leave are the older, more concrete disputes. That choice makes the story feel like a frontier fight over technology rather than a stalled first-contract negotiation. Allina's statement is included but summarized. |
| Star Tribune | U.S. center (Minnesota commercial daily) | 4 | 'Striking Allina doctors worried about AI and loss of control over medical care' | Frames through physician anxiety — 'worried,' 'loss of control' — which adopts the doctors' emotional register in the headline. The reporting itself is the most detailed on what AI tools are actually in use, which is the part most other coverage skips. |
| Minnesota Reformer | U.S. left (nonprofit, States Newsroom network, foundation-funded) | 5 | 'Allina hospital doctors walk off the job in historic 4-day strike in Minnesota' | 'Historic' is carried in the outlet's own voice, and the 'first in U.S. history' claim originates with the union. Allina's cost argument appears low in the piece. The Reformer has also covered the Sutter deal and union objections most persistently, which gives it depth but also a consistent labor-side lens. |
| Allina Health | Primary source — the employer | 6 | 'Allina Health responds to SEIU strike notices' | Leads with percentages designed to shrink the strike ('less than 4% of Mercy medical staff') and with external cost pressures it does not control. Does not directly engage the specific allegation about sick-leave compliance with state law. |
| World Socialist Web Site | Trotskyist left (Socialist Equality Party publication) | 8 | 'Minnesota Allina Health doctors authorize strike as hospice nurses walk out amid merger with California giant Sutter Health, AI cuts' | Bundles four separate things — this strike, a hospice nurses' walkout, the Sutter merger, and 'AI cuts' — into one causal story about capital versus workers. It also targets SEIU's own leadership as insufficiently militant, which is a distinct angle no mainstream outlet takes. Heaviest framing in the set. |
References
- Allina hospital doctors walk off the job in historic 4-day strike in Minnesota — Minnesota Reformer · U.S. left-leaning nonprofit newsroom; part of States Newsroom, funded by foundations and individual donors
- 150 Allina Health doctors start four-day strike after contract negotiations fail — CBS News · U.S. center; commercial network owned by Paramount
- Doctors strike, rally for contract with Allina — MPR News · U.S. center-left public radio; member- and foundation-funded
- Allina Health's doctors strike takes on AI diagnoses — MPR News · U.S. center-left public radio; member- and foundation-funded
- Striking Allina doctors worried about AI and loss of control over medical care — Star Tribune · U.S. center; Minnesota commercial daily, privately owned
- Collective Bargaining: Doctors Council SEIU — Allina Health · Primary source — the employer's own bargaining updates page
- Allina Health responds to SEIU strike notices — Allina Health · Primary source — employer press release
- Allina Physicians at Unity/Mercy Hospitals File Ten-Day ULP Strike Notice — Doctors Council SEIU · Primary source — the union's own press release; SEIU-affiliated labor organization
- Allina doctors at Mercy, Unity hospitals begin 4-day strike Monday — FOX 9 · U.S. center; Fox-owned local Minneapolis station (local newsroom, distinct from Fox News national opinion programming)
- Allina to be acquired by large California health system — Minnesota Reformer · U.S. left-leaning nonprofit newsroom; States Newsroom
- Allina Health acquisition by California's Sutter raises union concerns over contracts, pensions — CBS News · U.S. center; commercial network owned by Paramount
- Allina Health to join Sutter Health for 39-hospital system — Healthcare Finance News · U.S. healthcare industry trade press; advertiser-supported, provider/administrator audience
- Doctors Council-SEIU Members Ratify Allina Tentative Agreement With Over 90% Support — Doctors Council SEIU · Primary source — union press release
- Minnesota Allina Health doctors authorize strike as hospice nurses walk out amid merger with California giant Sutter Health, AI cuts — World Socialist Web Site · Trotskyist left; publication of the Socialist Equality Party / International Committee of the Fourth International
- Noncompete Agreements: What's the Status of Laws Restricting Them Nationwide? (March 2026 Update) — The National Law Review · U.S. legal trade publication; content contributed by law firms, predominantly management-side employment practices
- Hundreds of Allina doctors authorize open-ended strike as negotiations enter third year — Minnesota Reformer · U.S. left-leaning nonprofit newsroom; States Newsroom
- Minnesota hospital doctors stage what union calls first private-sector physician strike in US history — NationofChange · U.S. progressive nonprofit advocacy news site; donor-funded
- Hospital CEOs meet union skepticism over out-of-state acquisition of Allina Health — Minnesota Reformer · U.S. left-leaning nonprofit newsroom; States Newsroom
- Minnesota attorney general investigating Aspirus Health over claims of unlawful noncompetes — Fierce Healthcare · U.S. healthcare industry trade press; advertiser-supported
- Allina Health and Sutter Health Sign Definitive Agreement, Taking Next Step in Advancing Shared Vision — Allina Health · Primary source — employer press release