Personal health data on thousands of Minnesota patients was shared with a debt collection company that shouldn't have access to such information, Attorney General Lori Swanson said Thursday. Swanson filed a lawsuit against the company, Chicago-based Accretive Health, alleging that it failed to protect patient healthcare records and failed to disclose to patients how their records are used. The lawsuit stems from the theft last year in Minneapolis of a laptop belonging to an Accretive Health employee. The laptop contained unencrypted health data of about 23,500 Fairview Health Services and North Memorial Health Care patients.
