Rochester-based Mayo Clinic and Minneapolis-based Fairview Health Services have signed a tentative agreement to transfer control of Red Wing Medical Center. Mayo Clinic Health System hopes to assume operations by July 1. The deal follows months of discussion.

The two health care providers began reviewing the potential merger about five months ago. A Fairview Red Wing official told the Republican Eagle that a final decision is expected to be made in the next several months. Lake City and Cannon Falls are already part of the Mayo Clinic Health System.

Fairview Ridges Hospital in Burnsville plans to add a150,000-square-foot specialty care medical office building, hospital expansion and a new parking ramp, the Business Journal reports. The project will cost about $60 million.

The health care system felt it was necessary to cut its ties with the debt collector. Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson accused Chicago-based Accretive of using high-pressure strategies to get Minnesota hospital patients to pay for their treatments. The Business Journal reports Fairview began reducing its contract with the collection firm after a laptop with unencrypted patient information was stolen. Meanwhile, a Democratic Congressman from California is now calling for a federal investigation.

The Bloomington location will begin operating as a Fairview clinic this month. The Minneapolis clinic, which was destroyed by fire earlier this year, will re-open as a Fairview clinic in the spring.

Rochester-based Mayo Clinic earned the No. 3 spot on U.S. News & World Report's elite list of “Best Hospitals." The University of Minnesota Medical Center in Minneapolis; Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis; St. Cloud Hospital and United Hospital in St. Paul were also among the five Minnesota hospitals to receive national rankings.