Minn. Department of Health outlines mission, bureaus and priorities for 2025 session

Deputy Commissioner Wendy Underwood told the Senate Health and Human Services Committee on Jan. 21 that the Minnesota Department of Health’s mission is “to protect, maintain, and improve the health of all Minnesotans.”

Underwood said the department is organized into five bureaus, employs roughly 1,800 staff and operates programs ranging from newborn screening to environmental health inspections. She told senators the agency’s work spans prevention, outbreak detection, lab testing and health equity efforts and that many big health outcomes are driven by social and economic factors outside clinical care.

The overview was intended to give committee members baseline information before budget and policy deliberations. Underwood emphasized persistent disparities—calling them the “Minnesota paradox”—and singled out statistics the department will use in the session, including higher breast-cancer mortality and asthma death rates for some Black Minnesotan populations.

Underwood walked senators through the department’s bureaus and examples of their work: the Health Protection Bureau inspects nearly 7,000 public water systems and regulates roughly 26,000 food, lodging and pool establishments; the public health laboratory screens about 60,000 newborns annually and conducted almost 100,000 infectious-disease tests last year; the Health Systems Bureau monitors about 4,700 hospitals and long-term care facilities and oversees the Office of Vital Records; and a Health Equity Bureau coordinates outreach with tribal nations and community partners. She also noted the department helped deliver more than 3,000 original birth records after a mid‑2024 law change.

Underwood told the committee the department is implementing a new Center for Health Care Affordability, has hired a director who will start later in January and will form advisory groups and community conversations to develop evidence-based approaches to rising health-care spending. She described the center as a response to the legislature’s direction and to concerns that health-care costs are growing faster than inflation.

Senators asked about workforce shortages, administrative costs and whether more flexible state funding or local flexibility should be considered. Underwood said MDH runs workforce and rural‑health programs, supports loan forgiveness efforts and conducts research on administrative costs; she said the department will provide follow-up material on funding flows and monthly or legislative reports already in development.

The presentation closed with Underwood urging sustained, policy and financial support for public‑health functions that are less visible when they succeed—preventing outbreaks, ensuring safe water or supporting childhood nutrition.