Tenet Healthcare Corporation

File:Tenet Healthcare logo.png
Type	Public company
Traded as	NYSE: THC S&P 500 Component
Industry	Healthcare
Founded	1967
Headquarters	Dallas, Texas, U.S.
Key people	Trevor Fetter (President and CEO)
Services	Hospital management
Revenue	US$ 9.205 billion (2010)[1]
Operating income	US$ 634.0 million (2010)[1]
Net income	US$ 1.119 billion (2010)[1]
Total assets	US$ 8.500 billion (2010)[1]
Total equity	US$ 1.819 billion (2010)[1]
Employees	56,605 (December 2010)
Website	tenethealth.com

Tenet Healthcare Corporation, an investor-owned health-care delivery systems company based in Dallas, Texas. THC owns and operates 49 acute-care hospitals in 11 states and 90 outpatient centers in 12 states, with a majority of these hospitals (32) in California, Florida and Texas. Headquartered in downtown Dallas, Tenet has more than 13,000 licensed beds and 57,000 employees.^[2]

The company’s hospitals offer acute care, radiology and respiratory therapy services, as well as operating and recovery rooms, clinical laboratories and pharmacies. In addition, Tenet hospitals offer intensive care, critical care and coronary care units; physical therapy; orthopedic, oncology, outpatient, organ transplant and surgical services.^[3]

History[link]

Tenet was founded in 1967 by three lawyers: Richard Eamer, Leonard Cohen and John Bedrosian and originally named National Medical Enterprises (NME) and originally headquartered in Los Angeles, California. The company spent its first decade building and acquiring medical facilities and related services. The company began seven construction projects in 1971, tripling in size within a year. In the mid-1980s, NME shifted its focus to specialty hospitals. After some scandals in the early 1990s (see below), NME unloaded its specialty facilities, reconfiguring itself as Tenet Healthcare Corporation in 1995, and again turned its focus to acute care. Tenet dominated the southern California market, and sought a foothold in south Florida, Louisiana and Texas, as well as the Philadelphia area. Eventually, Tenet owned 111 hospitals. In 2002, however, the company became entangled in scandals, as one of its hospitals came under scrutiny for its surgical practices and another was investigated in a kickback scheme (see below).^[4] In 2003, Trevor Fetter became CEO and started the Commitment to Quality that same year, an initiative that included improvements in data gathering and statistics.^[5] The company also hired a chief compliance officer to rebuild its ethics and compliance programs.^[6] In 2004, Tenet also moved its headquarters from California to the northern suburban areas of Dallas. To improve its reputation, Tenet retained former Florida governor Jeb Bush to its board of directors in 2007.^[7] Detailed financial reports on Tenet's patient mix, collection rates and accounts receivables that are required by the company as a condition of the 5-year corporate integrity agreement with the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services^[8][9] have improved the company's transparency. As of 2009, the company has begun to turn around, with an operating revenue and net profit of $9 billion and $181 million, respectively. In 2009, Tenet stock became the number 2 performer on the S&P 500 after decreasing earlier in the year because of higher than average debt.^[10] The company's largest hospital is Brookwood Medical Center located in Birmingham, Alabama with almost 600 beds.

Hospitals[link]

Controversies[link]

Psychiatric fraud[link]

In the early 1990s as National Medical Enterprises, the company was accused of committing fraud by admitting thousands of psychiatric patients who did not need hospitalization and then charging these patients inflated prices.^[11] In 1991, the federal government investigated the company for fraud and conspiracy.^[12] In 1993, offices of the company were raided by law enforcement in an attempt to show that the company was defrauding patients and insurance companies.^[13] In 1994, the company paid $2.5 million to settle lawsuits from 23 patients at its psychiatric hospitals.^[14] Again in 1994, National Medical Enterprises settled fraud charges with the United States and 28 states involving payments of a record $380 million USD at the time and federal guilty pleas on eight criminal counts by two of its units. The company also agreed to a 5-year corporate integrity agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.^[15]

Unnecessary heart surgeries[link]

In the late 1990s through the early 2000s, Redding Medical Center (a former Tenet hospital), was investigated for carrying out unnecessary heart surgeries on over 600 patients. To settle these allegations, Tenet agreed to pay a $54 million USD fine to the federal government and the state of California, without admitting wrongdoing.^[16] This settlement did not preclude civil or criminal charges against individuals of the company.^[16] In order for the hospital to continue receiving Medicare, Tenet was compelled by federal regulators to sell the hospital and it was subsequently renamed Shasta Regional Medical Center.^[17] In 2004, Tenet paid an additional $395 million USD to 769 patients to settle litigation for the unnecessary surgeries.^[18] The scandal and subsequent federal investigation are described in the book Coronary: A True Story of Medicine Gone Awry by author Stephen Klaidman.

Medicare fraud[link]

In June 2006, Tenet agreed to pay $725 million in cash and give up $175 million of Medicare payments for a total of $900 million USD in fees to resolve claims it defrauded the federal government for over-billing Medicare claims during the 1990s. To finance the settlement, they sold 11 hospitals in four states including Memorial Medical Center (see below).^[19][20][21] In September of that year, Tenet entered into a 5-year corporate integrity agreement with the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.^[8][9] That agreement expired on September 27, 2011.

Hurricane Katrina[link]

In 2006, Dr. Anna Pou and nurses Lori Budo and Cheri Landry, who worked at Memorial Medical Center (a hospital owned at the time by Tenet Healthcare), in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, had been taken from their homes late at night in a highly publicized arrest on charges of second-degree murder in the deaths of four patients by Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti.^[22] In August 2007, a New Orleans grand jury declined to indict the three women. After the grand jury declined to return charges, a New Orleans judge expunged the women's arrest records. Dr. Pou sued Foti for defamation and damage to her career.^[23] In June 2006, Tenet announced that they planned to sell Memorial Medical Center and three other hospitals in the greater New Orleans area.^[24]

Tax dodging and lobbying[link]

In December 2011, the non-partisan organization Public Campaign criticized Tenet Healthcare for spending $3.43 million on lobbying and not paying any taxes during 2008-2010, instead getting $48 million in tax rebates, despite making a profit of $415 million, and increasing executive pay by 19% to $24 million in 2010 for its top 5 executives.^[25]

Awards and recognition[link]

• 15 American Association for Respiratory Care Quality Respiratory Care Recognitions
• 94 American Heart Association Get With The GuidelinesSM Performance Achievement Awards
• 24 Blue Cross and Blue Shield National Blue Distinction Centers
• 214 CIGNA Quality Designations
• 8 HHS Organ Donation Medal of Honor Hospitals
• 18 Joint Commission Certified Primary Stroke Centers
• 14 Society of Chest Pain Center Accredited Chest Pain Centers
• 95 UnitedHealth Premium Specialty Center Designations
• 15 United Resource Network Centers of Excellence^{[26][dead link]}

See also[link]

	Dallas portal
	Companies portal

• Hospital Corporation of America

References[link]

External links[link]

• Tenet Healthcare Corporation Website
• Washington Post 7/25/05
• Psychiatric Care Problems Involving Tenet Healthcare
• Tenet Healthcare & National Medical Enterprises (NME)