The ER’s Debt Collector: In January, Minnesota’s Attorney General Lori Swanson filed a complaint against debt collection company Accretive Health on allegations the company broke several federal and state laws, including accessing patient records in violation of privacy laws and embedding debt collectors in emergency rooms where patients were encouraged not to seek treatment until their outstanding medical bills were paid. Since the story broke in the New York Times two weeks ago, Accretive’s stock has lost more than 40 percent of its value, triggering investigations and lawsuits by shareholders who say they weren’t informed of the complaint filed three months ago. [Photo: MTV Networks] NYT: Debt collector is faulted for tough tactics in ERs
Pop-upView Separately

The ER’s Debt Collector: In January, Minnesota’s Attorney General Lori Swanson filed a complaint against debt collection company Accretive Health on allegations the company broke several federal and state laws, including accessing patient records in violation of privacy laws and embedding debt collectors in emergency rooms where patients were encouraged not to seek treatment until their outstanding medical bills were paid.

Since the story broke in the New York Times two weeks ago, Accretive’s stock has lost more than 40 percent of its value, triggering investigations and lawsuits by shareholders who say they weren’t informed of the complaint filed three months ago. [Photo: MTV Networks]

NYT: Debt collector is faulted for tough tactics in ERs

To patients, the debt collectors may look indistinguishable from hospital employees, may demand they pay outstanding bills and may discourage them from seeking emergency care at all, even using scripts like those in collection boiler rooms, according to the documents and employees interviewed by The New York Times.
Accretive Health is being investigated by the attorney general of Minnesota for staffing debt collectors inside the emergency rooms of hospitals. These debt collectors reportedly discouraged patients from seeking medical treatment until they paid their outstanding medical bills and, in some cases, hospitals provided creditors with access to patient records. Both would be violations of federal laws. Accretive’s stock reacted negatively to the news, Reuters reports. [New York Times]