$2.5M Settlement, Ban In Hospital Collections Case

A legal settlement announced Monday bars Accretive Health Inc., a Chicago-based medical revenue company, from doing business in Minnesota for six years after the state's Attorney General Lori Swanson accused the firm of intrusive efforts to collect money from patients in several hospitals.

Accretive will pay $2.5 million to set up a restitution fund for patients and return patient data to its client hospitals in the state, which include Fairview Health Systems hospitals, North Memorial Health Care and Maple Grove Hospital. Fairview terminated its contract with Accretive in April.

The settlement requires Accretive to stop operations in Minnesota by November. It further will be banned for two years outright and another four years after that unless the attorney general approves.
Swanson sued Accretive in January, alleging violations of collection, consumer protection and privacy laws.

An investigation, stemming from the theft of an unencrypted laptop containing private information for 23,500 patients out of an Accretive employee's car, revealed Accretive had access to patient data through contracts with Fairview and North Memorial - and used that data to assess patients' risk of becoming hospitalized.

"It's good to close the door on this disturbing chapter in Minnesota health care," Swanson said.
Accretive said in a statement that the settlement allows the company to move on without admitting liability or wrongdoing, but it will cost more than 100 jobs in Minnesota.

"Entering into this settlement agreement allows our company to put this matter behind us and prevents further distraction from the important work that we do for our hospital clients," Chief Executive Officer Mary Tolan said in the statement.

The company works with hospitals to maximize revenue, including efforts to enroll qualified patients in health insurance. Accretive also said it has improved its encryption of laptops after firing the employee who left the unencrypted laptop in his car.

In a report last April, Swanson's office said Accretive professionals created a high-pressure atmosphere where employees were coached to get payment from patients before treatment was given.

In its statement about the settlement, Accretive said Swanson's investigation "did not and could not identify a single patient" in Minnesota who had a bad experience with an Accretive employee or alleged they were denied care.

But Swanson said she referred patient affidavits to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which enforces a federal law requiring hospitals to treat emergency patients before seeking payment.