Debt Collection Agency Accretive Health May Face Federal Investigation For 'Abusive' Tactics

Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) wants federal authorities to investigate debt collectors that are embedded inside hospitals.

A debt-collection agency that reportedly worked to obtain money owed by patients inside U.S. hospitals should be investigated by federal authorities, a California congressman has said.

Rep. Pete Stark, the senior Democrat on the subcommittee that oversees Medicare and other health care policies, has asked two federal health care agencies to look into the practices of Accretive Health, a debt-collection company that does business with dozens of U.S. hospitals. Stark's call for a federal intervention comes after The New York Times reported that the company sends its employees directly into hospitals to pressure patients for money.

"The debt collection tactics apparently being used by Accretive Health to get money from patients waiting to be seen by an ER doctor or recuperating in a hospital bed are abominable," Stark said in a news release. "This is corporate greed at its worst," he said.

"The article outlines abusive debt collection tactics undertaken by a hospital contractor; tactics that may be in violation of several federal laws," Stark wrote in a letter today to Marilyn Tavenner, the acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and to Daniel Levinson, the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Service. Hospitals that hire Accretive Health allegedly allow debt collectors to work within the hospital in roles that include registering new patients, scheduling appointments and handling billing, the Times reported. Patients have been reportedly asked to pay upfront for emergency care, even though federal law requires hospitals to treat emergency room patients regardless of their ability to pay, according to the newspaper.

Hospitals were stuck with $39.3 billion in unpaid bills in 2010, which amounted to 5.6 percent of their total expenses, according to the American Hospital Association. The industry faces increasing financial pressure as health care costs escalate, as Medicare, Medicaid and private health insurance companies' payment rates grow smaller and as more Americans become uninsured or lack the means to pay for health care.

Accretive Health and two of its clients, Fairview Health Services and North Memorial Health Care, have come under scrutiny from the Minnesota attorney general Lori Swanson. Swanson sued Accretive Health in January after a company employee last year left a laptop containing the sensitive information of nearly 23,500 patients in a rental car.

Swanson also released a report this week detailing the practices used by Accretive Health employees to obtain payments from hospital patients.

This post has been updated to include further quotes from Stark and to indicate that Stark's letter was also sent to HHS.

Watch an interview with Nancy Mihalek of Burnsville, Minn., who says the debt-collection company tried to talk her out of surgery because she owed money, on WCCO, a CBS affiliate in Minnesota:

Comments

[Brett Marlows]

02:33 AM on 02/27/2013

Nice post! thanks for sharing these information about Best debt collection agency in UK. It is very helpful for everyone.

[RoseMarie Chaperon]

03:14 AM on 04/29/2012

I used to work for this company as a director, I can attest to their violations of the FDCPA and also the EMTALA violations in the emergency department. When any employee speaks up about these violations they employees are often terminated for stating the obvious. They indeed have violated these regulations and Ascension Health CEO’s and other leaders were aware that Accretive Health was involved in these unfair practices; they decided to look the other way.

[stargazer13]

02:45 PM on 04/27/2012

I hope they throw the book at him !! and all his kind

traumatizing sick and injured people is above and beyond the pale

[Angoradebbs]

07:22 PM on 04/27/2012

I hope they get brought up on criminal charges...go get em Congressman!!

[zombywulf]

02:18 PM on 04/27/2012

I wonder if "stand your ground " laws apply in hospitals? I'm sure more than a few bottom feeders have threatened to have care withheld from critically ill patients.

[waitforitwaitforit]

10:57 AM on 04/27/2012

Aren't there already a number of laws on the books that prohibit these kind of collection practices?

So what's going to happen? Are they going to write more laws which will be equally unenforced?

[chaucer1]

09:45 AM on 04/27/2012

The real bottom-feeders work at debt collection if they work at all.

[pines15]

09:15 AM on 04/27/2012

it is my opinion that debt collectors and their bosses pretty much lack any conscience at all.

[frank day]

09:05 AM on 04/27/2012

We need NAMES

Who owns and operates these businesses??

[mj1247]

09:14 AM on 04/27/2012

im sure there owned by big time republican donors.......remember rick scott?...how many millions did he scam from medicare?

[JumpStreet1983]

08:51 AM on 04/27/2012

Somewhere in the distance, Canada is both laughing at us and looking at our sick/elderly with pity.

[KJ Pierson]

01:02 PM on 04/27/2012

While they wait 3 months for the operations they need.

[Silence Equals Consent]

07:42 PM on 04/27/2012

This always the response paroted. You know waiting 3 months for an operation is far better than not receiving it at all. I'll take the waiting time and healthcare for all. People who want and can afford immediate treatment will do what they have always done, go to someone who will provide it.

[blair3b]

08:40 AM on 04/27/2012

Corporate greed? So Stark would say it is perfectly fine for a debt collector acting for an individual to do this? Idiotic political agendas that I hope most Americans are smart enough to see through.

By the way, debt collecting in circumstances like this should be considered unlawful.

[parabq]

08:21 AM on 04/27/2012

Its big hospital and big pharma !!!! Hey you get your price so high people cant pat, they dont pay ! So this is the end result. These debt collectors are scum for sure. About the same level as cops, bullies with mental problems. I love the fact people are suing them and winning !!!

[Periwinkle]

07:13 AM on 04/27/2012

If we had a humane, single-payer system, hospitals wouldn't get "stuck" in the first place. This story is outrageous. Sick people shouldn't be worrying about the bills more than their health.

[outtopastur]

06:42 AM on 04/27/2012

Looks to me like they may also be violating the EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act), by harassing patients for payment and interfering with their care:

...While hospital collections increased, patient care plummeted, the employees said. “Patients are harassed mercilessly,” a hospital employee told Ms. Swanson. Another hospital employee complained, “We were told if we don’t get money from patients, in the emergency room, we will be fired.”...

"1.Individuals requesting emergency care, or those for whom a representative has made a request if the patient is unable, must receive a medical screening examination to determine whether an emergency medical condition (EMC) exists. The participating hospital cannot delay examination and treatment to inquire about methods of payment or insurance coverage, or a patient's citizenship or legal status. The hospital may only start the process of payment inquiry and billing once they have stabilized the patient to a degree that the process will not interfere with or otherwise compromise patient care".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Medical_Treatment_and_Active_Labor_Act

[Lawyer13]

06:21 AM on 04/27/2012

A view from across the pond : This must be the best advert for a drastic change in the provision of Health Care in USA. When will you guys realise that FREE Medical Care is a great goal to work towards.

[Nopinky]

08:28 AM on 04/27/2012

Most of us do know this, but there's a very LOUD contingent of people here who think that people should just be left to die. Cuz that's TOTALLY Christian 'n stuff. Plus great for the economy.

[frank day]

09:07 AM on 04/27/2012

Thanks for your concern, but watch out on your own end.

[annieaburgess]

05:22 AM on 04/27/2012

I know this guy that was recently diagnosed with a severe blood disorder. Now this man is a true blue republican, is against the government giving a helping hand to anyone, thinks that people on unemployment are lazy, blah, blah, blah...anyway, he is self employed and his bookkeeper forgot to pay his health insurance so now he is not covered and all of these medical bills he has to pay for. He was asked yesterday if he had changed his mind about obama care and he said "where do I sign up". Can we say KARMA!

[Periwinkle]

07:15 AM on 04/27/2012

Republicans live in a fantasy world where nothing bad ever happens to them . . . until it does. This guy will be covered in the "Obamacare" pre-existing condition pool, no questions asked. I guess the only way to turn them around is one nasty disease at a time.

[AGrant31]

09:30 AM on 04/27/2012

His book keeper "forgot"? or is it more likely that he didn't actually have insurance in the first place? I only ask, because it's becoming an increasingly common excuse, or at least one I'm hearing more and more, and I have never come across a book keeper who pays the bills; they keep the books.

[annieaburgess]

10:26 AM on 04/27/2012

I know, use someone else as a scapegoat. Whatever happened to personal responsibility???