Accretive Health chairman has debt-collection history

In 2009, the Minnesota attorney general sued a firm that arbitrated consumer collection disputes. At the center of what Swanson described as a "complex web of companies" was a New York private-equity firm led by J. Michael Cline. Three years later, Swanson sued Chicago-based Accretive Health Inc., slamming its hospital bill collection practices as a "boiler-room-style sales atmosphere." The fast-growing company manages patient revenue for some of the nation's largest hospital systems. One of the financiers who bankrolled Accretive Health and has been its chairman since 2009: J. Michael Cline. Cline's previous trouble in Minnesota could be problematic for Accretive Health as it attempts to move forward.