Minnesota's attorney general filed a memorandum in federal court (PDF) with new patient claims to support the state's lawsuit against Accretive Health.
Attorney General Lori Swanson had sued the Chicago-based healthcare billing and collection company in January after the theft of an Accretive laptop in 2011. The unencrypted laptop contained information about patients treated at Fairview Health Services and North Memorial Health Care.
It later amended the complaint last month, alleging that its employees violated debt collection and consumer protection laws when they pressured patients at Fairview Health Services to make payments for their care in advance of receiving treatment.
The memorandum includes affidavits from an additional 10 patients.
“Accretive orchestrated a pattern of unlawful and reprehensible conduct toward emergency room and other hospital patients in Minnesota,” Swanson said in the court filing. “These patients should be heard, and this lawsuit should move forward.”
Earlier this month, Accretive filed a motion to dismiss the state's second amended complaint.
“It states the very same legal claims and seeks the very same (limited) relief as the prior complaint,” the company said in the July 2 motion.
“Once again, the attorney general has rehashed the same baseless allegations and mischaracterizations on which her original claim was based,” Accretive said in a statement today. “Her filings are designed to distract attention from the incontrovertible fact that she has not been able to identify a single patient who had an inappropriate interaction with an Accretive Health employee or who was denied care for any reason.”
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