Information from Sen. Carla Nelson's Office

Rochester- Senator Carla Nelson (R-Rochester) and Representative Mike Benson (R-Rochester) announced Monday legislation that would increase the price of cigarettes by $1.29 to deter teen smoking.  The bill will direct revenue to be used to repay the debt of the 2011 education shift and lower the tax burden on job creators statewide.

Senator Nelson and Representative Benson were joined Monday at Hope Lodge in Rochester by Dr. Raymond Gibbons of the Mayo Clinic, Scott Heck, Chair-Elect of the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce and Michael Muñoz, Superintendent of Rochester Public Schools.

“This bill will help reduce the number of teenage smokers in the State of Minnesota,” said Representative Benson.  “Not only will the revenue collected help reduce expenses in other areas of state government, but it will also lead to fewer people who start smoking and give more smokers the reason they need to quit.”

Information from the Office of Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson:

Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson today filed a lawsuit against Accretive Health, Inc., a debt collection agency that is part of a New York private equity fund conglomerate, for failing to protect the confidentiality of patient health care records and not disclosing to patients its extensive involvement in their health care through its role in managing the revenue and health care delivery systems at two Minnesota hospital systems.

Last July, Accretive lost a laptop computer containing unencrypted health data about 23,500 patients in Minnesota.  The lawsuit alleges that Accretive gained access to sensitive patient data through contracts with the hospitals and numerically scored patients’ risk of hospitalization and medical complexity, graded their “frailty,” compiled per-patient profit and loss reports, and identified patients deemed to be “outliers.”