Accretive Health is banned from doing business in Minnesota.

 Accretive Health will be barred from operating in Minnesota for two to six years under a settlement agreement announced Monday by Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson.

The agreement ends a six-month legal battle in which Swanson had accused the Chicago consulting firm of deceiving patients, harassing them for money in emergency rooms and mishandling patient data at Fairview and North Memorial hospitals.

Accretive, one of the country's largest health care consulting firms, has consistently denied any wrongdoing. In a statement Monday, the company said there were "no findings of fault," and that it agreed to the settlement "in order to prevent this matter from being a continued distraction."

Under the agreement, Accretive will pay about $2.5 million to the state of Minnesota as part of a "restitution fund" administered by a retired judge to compensate patients.

The company also will be forced to give up its only remaining client in Minnesota, North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale, by Nov. 1, and will be banned from all business in the state for two years. After that, it would need permission from the attorney general to return to Minnesota before November 2018.

The settlement was approved Monday by U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle in St. Paul.

At a news conference Monday, Swanson said it may be unprecedented in Minnesota for a publicly traded company the size of Accretive to get thrown out. But the harsh action was justified by the severity of the case, she said. All but two of the 60 patients who provided affidavits about Accretive's intimidation tactics had good insurance, Swanson said.

Hospital emergency rooms "should be a solemn place, not a place for a financial shakedown of patients," she said. "It is good to close the door on this disturbing chapter in Minnesota health care."

Accretive, however, said Monday that Swanson "did not and could not identify a single patient" who had been denied care or had a bad experience with an Accretive employee. It continued to assert that Swanson's actions were "unnecessarily aggressive" and cost more than 100 Minnesotans their jobs.

Joe Anthony, an attorney for Accretive, said it settled because the attorney general was making it too difficult to do business in the state. Accretive was confident it would prevail in court, but in the meantime would have to deal with more negative publicity, he said.
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/164313776.html?refer=y

Chicago - Directors of Accretive Health, damaged the company by "shameful misconduct" that violated privacy, consumer-protection and debt-collection laws, shareholders say in a federal derivative complaint.
Accretive Health complaint:
http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/08/01/Accretive.pdf