Accretive Health Goes on Offensive, Seeks Standards for Health Care Debt Collections

Accretive Health will fund the health care industry’s first standards for how health care organizations handle patient finance and debt collections.

Accretive has assembled a panel to be led by Michael Leavitt, former Secretary of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and three-term governor from Utah. Leavitt will be joined by former U.S. senators Tom Daschle and Bill Frist and numerous health care industry experts.

The proposal is the latest of proactive public relations moves by Accretive to combat what has been a devastating report released last month by the Minnesota attorney general that criticized the company for what it perceived as excessive patient finance and debt collection practices. Accretive has denied the accusations, but saw its stock price halve shortly after the report was made public.