ER Bill Collectors

Accretive Placed Debt Collectors in Hospitals, Minnesota AG Says - Bloomberg

Patients at a Minnesota hospital chain were met in the emergency room and even at their bedsides by debt collectors from a company that didn’t disclose its role,the state’s attorney general alleges.

Employees of Fairview Health Services, a nonprofit chain of seven hospitals based in Minneapolis, were required to use a computer system derisively called “Blue Balls” to track whether patients paid their bills and pressure them for payment before they received care, Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson said. The payment system began after Fairview hired the collection agency Accretive Health Inc. (AH) in May 2010, Swanson said today in a report describing the companies’ relationship.