A Prescription for Growth: Mary Tolan, Founder, President, CEO, Accretive Health, Inc., Named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2010 Winner in the Services Category

PALM SPRINGS, Calif., Nov. 14, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Mary A. Tolan, Founder, President, CEO, Accretive Health, Inc., was named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2010 national winner in the Services category. Now in its 24th year, Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur Of The Year® is the world's most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs. The award encourages entrepreneurial activity and recognizes leaders and visionaries who demonstrate innovation, financial success and personal commitment as they create and build world-class businesses.  

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Tolan was recognized for founding and building Accretive Health into a significant hospital revenue-cycle operations manager. Tolan was honored at the Entrepreneur Of The Year® gala, the culminating event of the Ernst & Young Strategic Growth Forum in Palm Springs. The Forum is the nation's premier gathering of high-growth, market-leading companies. Awards were given in nine additional categories.  All Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® winners were selected by an independent panel of judges from approximately 300 regional award recipients.  

"In order to be an entrepreneur success story, you need to have the right combination of leadership, confidence, tenaciousness and drive," said Bryan Pearce, Americas Director, Entrepreneur Of The Year, Ernst & Young LLP. "Mary Tolan embodies these traits and more. By applying the business process outsourcing model to health care, she has boosted hospital revenues and improved the quality of care for patients. Mary Tolan is very deserving of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2010 award in the Services category."

A rapid ascent

Tolan had already made an impressively fast accent during her 21 years at Accenture when she met Michael Cline, co-founder of Accretive LLC, a private equity/venture capitalist firm with a track record in the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry. Tolan had experience in this area too: During the time she spent in the utilities industry practice at Accenture, she had led a BPO project for a power company, helping it grow revenues by more than $4 billion in 10 years.

Cline presented two BPO ideas to Tolan, one of which eventually led to the creation of Accretive Health. Tolan had no prior experience in the health field, but her experience with utilities made her realize that both sectors were focused on the mission of public service, and both were fragmented industries with significant revenue leakage and low operating margins. She left Accenture, and she and Cline founded Healthcare Services Inc. in 2003; it became Accretive Health Inc. in 2009.

Sealing the revenue leaks

Focused on value creation, Accretive Health developed a patented methodology to determine the best possible revenue from each episode of care, measure the hospital's yield against that potential, and demonstrate paths to improvement.

Accretive Health's business model has been enormously successful. The company has become a leading provider of health care revenue cycle management services. Following an initial public offering of common stock in May 2010, the Chicago-based company reported second-quarter revenues of $151.9 million, up 21% over the second quarter last year, in its first-ever quarterly earnings report.

Entrepreneurship's many beneficiaries

Today, Accretive Health's customers typically are multi-hospital systems, including faith-based or community health care systems, academic medical centers and independent ambulatory clinics, as well as their affiliated physician practice groups.

Tolan is particularly proud that the company has helped fund some form of insurance coverage for 85% of uninsured patients who visit hospitals served by Accretive Health. The company's services have helped hospitals' yield and operating margins, which, in turn, has allowed the not-for-profit hospitals to expand their capital investment to improve the quality of care.

Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2010 National Finalists in the Services Category

In addition to Tolan, The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® national finalists in the Services category are: Luke Hillier, CEO of Virginia Beach-based ADS Inc., a company that provides equipment and logistics services solutions to all DOD and Federal Agencies in support of homeland defense and homeland security, and works with defense and security contractors, and protective services organizations; Neal Keny-Guyer, CEO of Mercy Corps of Portland, Ore., an international non-profit that helps people in the world's toughest places turn the crises of natural disaster, poverty and conflict into opportunities for progress; and Greg Waldorf, CEO of Pasadena, Calif.-based eHarmony Inc., the #1 Trusted Relationship Services Provider in the USA. eHarmony's patented Compatibility Matching System® allows eHarmony members to be matched with compatible persons with whom they are likely to enjoy a long-term relationship.

Overall Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2010 National Winner

Howard W. Lutnick, Chairman and CEO of BGC Partners, Inc. (Nasdaq: BGCP), was named the Overall Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2010 national winner.

Video and Photos

To view video clips of all the Entrepreneur Of The Year® winners, please visit the Ernst & Young YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/ErnstandYoungGlobal.  Photos of the winners are also available by request.

Sponsors

Founded and produced by Ernst & Young LLP, the Entrepreneur Of The Year® awards are pleased to have the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and SAP America as national sponsors.

About Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur Of The Year®

Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur Of The Year® is the world's most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs. The award makes a difference through the way it encourages entrepreneurial activity among those with potential and recognizes the contribution of people who inspire others with their vision, leadership and achievement. As the first and only truly global award of its kind, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® celebrates those who are building and leading successful, growing and dynamic businesses, recognizing them through regional, national and global awards programs in more than 135 cities in 50 countries.

About Ernst & Young's Strategic Growth Markets Practice

Ernst & Young's Strategic Growth Markets (SGM) practice guides leading high-growth companies.  Our multi-disciplinary team of elite professionals provides perspective and advice to help our clients accelerate market leadership.  SGM delivers assurance, tax, transactions and advisory services to thousands of companies spanning all industries.  Ernst & Young is the undisputed leader in taking companies public, advising key government agencies on the issues impacting high-growth companies, and convening the experts who shape the business climate.  For more information, please visit us at www.ey.com/us/strategicgrowthmarkets.

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This news release has been issued by Ernst & Young LLP, a member firm of Ernst Young Global Limited located in the US.  

SOURCE Ernst & Young LLP