Accretive Denies Claims It Pressured Patients to Pay Accretive Health, one of the nation's largest collectors of medical bills, took issue on Sunday with a report by the Minnesota attorney general's office that it puts bedside pressure on patients to pay their bills. The allegations "grossly distort and mischaracterize" the company's revenue cycle services, it said in a statement. The suggestion that Accretive puts bedside pressure on patients to pay their bills out of pocket is a "flagrant distortion of fact," the company said. It said it was working with its advisers to address those allegations. Accretive shares plunged nearly 42 percent on Wednesday after Attorney General Lori Swanson of Minnesota issued a report contending that Accretive violated federal and state patient-privacy and debt-collection laws. She said that in some cases patients at Fairview Health Services, a Minnesota hospital chain, were pressured for payment before they received care and that Accretive's debt collectors did not properly disclose their role. Accretive said in its statement that it did not deny access to patient care and that the allegations were "flatly untrue." Ms. Swanson said last week that employees at Fairview, a nonprofit chain of seven hospitals based in Minneapolis, were required to use a system to track whether patients paid their bills. Accretive said late Friday that Fairview had canceled its contract with the company.