Due to a loss of Minnesota healthcare funds, Hennepin County Medical Center plans to stop seeing uninsured, nonemergency patients from other counties, cut 150 to 200 jobs, and close two clinics on its downtown campus. HCMS faces a 2010 budget that is "not sustainable," officials said. The changes, which would take place in 2010, were approved by the hospital's board and go to the county board next month for final approval. HCMC officials have warned for months that the hospital, which sees 140,000 patients a year in its emergency department alone, cannot continue to absorb losses in state funding and still continue to care for the uninsured patients, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
