The embattled Chicago firm that was the subject last month of a scathing report by Minnesota's attorney general has issued its own report designed to "set the record straight," the company said Friday, May 11. The 29-page report was released by Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., because it features answers to a lengthy set of questions he issued last month. Franken questioned Accretive Health after Attorney General Lori Swanson issued her report alleging overly aggressive billing and collection tactics by Accretive Health and one of its local customers, the Fairview health system. The company maintains that Swanson's allegations obscure the fact that Accretive Health follows industry standards for talking with patients about the money they owe for health services. In particular, Accretive Health employees were instructed never to insist that patients pay old or current bills in order to receive care, the company contended, adding that bedside conversations about bills were voluntary. 

Americans are likely hearing from debt collectors more in recent years than in the past, but a practice that may become even more common: debt collecting for unpaid school lunches. A lot of school-aged kids are getting free lunches -- not because they are backed by the government's free and reduced-lunch program, but because parents haven't been paying off lunch bills, forcing a number of districts to foot the cost. Already weighed down by budget cuts across education systems, districts can't afford to take on yet another addition to climbing costs. As a result, several across the country have resorted to hiring debt collectors, employing constables and switching out regular meals for lesser versions in a push to get parents to pay up. As of last February, New York City schools had absorbed some $42 million in unpaid lunch fees since 2004, according to The New York Times. Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools in North Carolina recently appropriated $40,000 to cover unpaid lunch fees, the Daily Tar Heel reports. Columbus City Schools in Ohio in March turned unpaid accounts over to a collection agency in an effort to recover about $900,000 in unpaid lunch fees. 

Click Here to Read More

Slower consumer spending: Weakness or good judgement?  

On the last day of April, the U.S. Commerce Department released its most recent report on consumer spending. The figures seem to reinforce the impression that the economy began to tail off late in the first quarter of 2012. Further, the details of the report hinted at underlying problems for the economy that won't be solved by more trips to the mall. In a sense, the March figures on income and outlays suggest that American consumers behaved rationally. That may be good news in the long run, but it is not the type of quick fix that would send stocks and deposit interest rates immediately higher. Consumer spending slows - In a statement accompanying the March figures on personal income and outlays, Deputy U.S. Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank pointed out that personal income rose for the 28th consecutive month, and that consumer spending was up 2.9 percent in the first quarter. Despite the positive spin, the numbers suggested signs of consumer weakness. For example, though personal income may have risen for 28 consecutive months, some of those increases were purely the effects of inflation. After taxes and inflation, personal income actually declined in January and February.

Click Here to Read More

Debt Settlement InfoBank (DSI) is the electronic repository for the securely maintained consumer records of more than 1,000 Debt Management and Settlement companies. Credit grantors, debt buyers, collection agencies and law firms may apply for controlled access to DSI's database to scrub portfolios against more than one million consumers currently enrolled in some type of credit resolution program. Electronic matches are quickly identified, and these immediate settlement opportunities will prove invaluable in every stage of the collection process. DSI provides the 21^st century means to expediently maximize revenue opportunities without incurring increased payroll and other types of related incremental costs.

Listen to Host Dan Cofall and Danny Stewart on CNN Radio as they discuss with Credit and Collection News Publisher and Editor Steve Ruderman on their weekly radio show segment on what is happening in the credit and collection's industry. Do not miss it!