Accretive Health Appoints Doug Berkson as Senior Vice President, Strategy & New Product Development

CHICAGO, July 28, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Accretive Health, Inc. (OTC Pink: ACHI) today announced that Douglas A. Berkson has joined the company as a Senior Vice President, taking on a new role focusing on helping healthcare providers manage evolving payment models. 

As payment models evolve along with new care delivery models, Mr. Berkson will work with the team to leverage the company's technology, managed services, and operating platform to help current and prospective clients successfully navigate through value-based contracts. Mr. Berkson and his team will develop applications, analytics and support services that help providers succeed with emerging incentive-based models.

Mr. Berkson comes to Accretive with a deep and broad healthcare background. For the past 15 years, Mr. Berkson has worked with payers and providers in the value-based care world on contracting, reimbursement models, interventions and strategy.  He held senior roles at Lumeris, an accountable care solutions company, and helped build the provider business at Health Dialog, a population health management company. Prior to that, he was a senior manager at Pfizer Health Solutions, helping implement a unique chronic care management program into hospital-based settings throughout the state of Florida.  Previously, he served as a senior consultant at The Lewin Group, providing strategic consulting to academic medical centers.  Mr. Berkson has also been an advisor to many of the country's largest health systems and has engaged both the C-suite and front-line operators in navigating the transition from volume to value.

"We are thrilled to have Doug join the Accretive team," said Accretive Health CEO Joe Flanagan. "His many years of working with payers and providers under varied risk-based payment models brings unique expertise to the company.  Accretive has many large hospital and IDN clients engaged to varying degrees with risk-based models, and Doug's expertise will help us build out our capabilities in these areas."

"I am extremely excited to join the team at Accretive," said. Mr. Berkson. "In addition to new business, Accretive's existing customer base presents a compelling opportunity to cross-sell value-based reimbursement functionality. Revenue that is often left on the table can be utilized to engage physicians and provide critical up-front capital needed for longer-term investments.  With the vast majority of payments still in the fee-for-service realm, we are in an ideal position to develop and deploy new products and services for our clients as the industry evolves."

About Accretive Health
Accretive Health is a leading provider of revenue cycle services and physician advisory services to healthcare providers. Accretive Health's mission is to help healthcare providers strengthen their financial stability so they can deliver better care at a more affordable cost to the communities they serve, increasing healthcare access for all. Accretive Health's distinctive operating model includes people, processes, and sophisticated integrated technology and analytics that help customers realize sustainable improvements in their operating margins and improve the satisfaction of their patients, physicians, and staff. Accretive Health's customers typically are multi-hospital systems, including faith-based or community healthcare systems, academic medical centers and independent ambulatory clinics, and their affiliated physician practice groups. For more information, visit www.accretivehealth.com.

Safe Harbor
The above statements regarding Accretive's value-based care business are forward-looking statements and are subject to risks and uncertainties. The Company has based these statements on the current status of the its operating plans, other information now known to the Company and general economic conditions. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and expectations reflected in these statements are reasonable, Accretive's operating plans are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and could vary materially from the Company's current expectations. The Company assumes no, and it specifically disclaims any, obligation to update these statements to reflect actual results or changes in factors or assumptions affecting this statement. The Company advises investors to consult any further disclosures it makes on these topics in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.