Accretive Health turns to healthcare veteran to right its financial ship

Accretive Health, a troubled national revenue-cycle company based in Chicago, has named veteran healthcare consultant Dr. Emad Rizk president and CEO.

Rizk will join Accretive Health on July 21 from McKesson Health Solutions, where he has been president since 2003. Before that, he was senior partner and global director for consultants Deloitte Consulting. Rizk ranked No. 49 on Modern Healthcare's 2013 list of the 50 Most Influential Physician Executives in Healthcare. He also made the list four other times: 2008 (No. 47); 2009, (No. 6); 2010, (No. 8); and 2011 (No. 43).

Rizk will succeed Steve Schuckenbrock, who headed Accretive for one year but said in April that he would not renew his employment contract when it expired in October.

Accretive announced that Schuckenbrock “accelerated his resignation” and will step down when Rizk arrives. Schuckenbrock, a former Dell Services president, succeeded company co-founder Mary Tolan, who stepped down as CEO in April 2013.

Rizk joins the company as it seeks to regain its footing as the company grapples with financial restatements, restructuring and recent layoffs, executive-level turnover and delisting from the New York Stock Exchange.

Accretive was also barred from business in Minnesota for a minimum of two years by the state's attorney general as part of a $2.5 million 2012 settlement over aggressive collection practices.

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