ST. Joseph's Medical Center

ST. Joseph's Medical Center, operating as Essentia Health ST. Joseph's Medical Center, is a tax-exempt nonprofit hospital based in Brainerd, Minnesota that acts as a sub-recipient on federal grant awards rather than as a federal contract prime. The entity is a subsidiary of Essentia Health, a larger Minnesota-based nonprofit healthcare organization.

ST. Joseph's Medical Center's federal footprint consists entirely of sub-award participation in health and substance-abuse treatment grant programs. Across fifteen awards dating to 2015, the center has served as sub-recipient on thirteen grant sub-awards (87% of total activity) and holds two prime grant awards (13%). The center's customer concentration is tightly focused on the Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which accounts for all but two of the center's grant sub-awards. Recent sub-award activity centers on the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant and the State Opioid Response (SOR) programs, with the Minnesota Department of Human Services acting as the prime grantee passing federal funds downstream to ST. Joseph's Medical Center for substance-abuse prevention and treatment delivery. Award activity has remained modest and relatively flat — one award in 2021, three in 2022, three in 2023, four in 2024, and two in 2025 to date — with obligated dollars ($3.8 million across the fifteen awards) substantially exceeding the combined potential value recorded in the source ($3 thousand), indicating that actual invoiced performance has outpaced initial estimates.

The center does not hold seats on federal contract vehicles, IDIQs, GWACs, or schedule agreements and does not function as a federal contractor. Its engagement with federal procurement occurs entirely through state pass-through grants administered by the Minnesota Department of Human Services, making it relevant to federal contractors primarily as a healthcare service provider or potential teaming partner on health-delivery contracts where federal funding flows through state health agencies rather than direct federal procurement. The center's parent, Essentia Health, likewise holds no federal contract vehicles and operates as a grant sub-recipient within the same HHS SAMHSA and HRSA funding streams.