First things first, I'm pegging @carmencita and @Wolftrail7272. Tenet Healthcare is partnered with the Clinton Foundation. (Link courtesy of @darkknight111) It also has ties to Rick Caruso in that both he and Tenet Healthcare founder John Bedrosian are on the National Institute for Transplantation.
I found a site which meticulously analyzes all the illegal and unethical behavior committed by Tenet Healthcare including when it first began as National Medical Enterprises. To my surprise the company basically flat out abducted people (mainly kids) that didn't need medical treatment in order to defraud Medicare. Later they were caught performing dangerous unneeded cardiac surgeries out of greed. They had to pay large settlements in both cases.
Because of their extensive criminal history, the NME was only able to get a license in Australia because a Australian supreme court justice named Yeldham granted them a license. Mr. Yeldham later committed suicide when it is revealed he was a pedophile and had protected other pedophiles.
http://www.uow.edu.au/~bmartin/dissent/documents/health/entry_to_Tenet.html https://archive.is/lsMG
Tenet Healthcare has had two comings
In its first incarnation during the 1980s and 1990s the company was called National Medical Enterprises (NME). It was involved in a massive scandal defrauding Medicare by buying patients for up to US $2000 each from anyone who could persuade them to come to hospital. The company had contracts with bounty hunters and even pleaded guilty to kidnapping a patients. It bought patients from Canada.
Vast numbers, many of them children did not need hospital admission. The company lied to them and kept them in hospital for the full duration of their insurance all the time providing them with vast amounts of unneeded treatment. All of this was signed for by doctors. The company eventually pleaded guilty to criminal practices in 1994, was forced to sell its specialty hospitals where the fraud occurred, entered into a variety of integrity and compliance agreements and paid in the region of US $1 billion in settlements and compensation to patients.
National Medical now borrowed money and expanded rapidly by a series of takeovers and renamed itself Tenet Healthcare. It claimed to be a kinder and more ethical corporation and many believed them. Its policies were directed to securing regional dominance by buying up not for profit hospitals.
NME entered Australia in 1991. I was already aware of its business practices in its international operations and had been assisted by the Australian Medical Association, the Federal Government and International Airlines in having some matters addressed. I did not however have proof of most of its practices and was unable to block its entry to Australia. During the subsequent years I collected information and was involved in the steps which eventually led to NME, now renamed Tenet Healthcare leaving Australia in 1995.
Tenet's second incarnation occurred after the stringent controls lapsed in 1999. It immediately resumed its former business policies and practices. It used its market dominance to rapidly increase its prices while at the same time targeting sicker patients and complex procedures. This allowed it to circumvent the restrictions on profits imposed by Diagnosis Related Groups (DRG's) funding.
The second scandal broke in October 2002. It is clear that the many allegations had substance and that Tenet's underlying business practices were unchanged from the earlier scandal. It was alleged that it once again gamed Medicare to generate vast profits, and that large numbers of patients were subjected to profitable invasive cardiac procedures and surgery when there was no need for this. There were a host of other allegations and a large number of government agencies investigated.
Tenet fought bitterly to avoid another criminal conviction. It settled multiple actions from government, community and private entities reaching a final global settlement of US $900 million in 2006. It also accepted a stringent Corporate Integrity Agreement CIA. Although it paid about US $2 billion in relation to all these matters it did not admit guilt in any of them. It insisted that even though some of its practices had been inappropriate they were not illegal.
Insights: There is a vast amount of information available about both of these incarnations. They provide a fascinating insight into the way the corporate marketplace works and why it is so dysfunctional. I have devoted multiple pages to analysing different aspects of their conduct.
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2impendingdoom ago
FYI carmencita is offline for a while for travel. Anyway, great post! I bet all (or a lot) of the healthcare businesses do this fabricated billing or fake treatment to some extent. It seems to be standard operating procedure.
There are fraud charges against Dr. Ali al-Attar (Iraqi fugitive) who "loaned" Imran Awan $100,000; He is also notable for being among Wolfowitz's associates during the 2003 Iraq war run-up.
I wonder if Elizabeth Berg (the DNC lawyer) has found anything more on the Mayo clinic connections in her investigations to the FL attorney deaths. Mayo was where peter smith was being treated when he inhaled the helium at the hotel across the street in his alleged suicide.
Tanngrisnir ago
I knew she was on vacation but I figured this post would probably be buried by the time she got back and so I pinged her so she could easily see it when she returns. Also who knows when Wolftrail7272 will be on next. I think you are right that most healthcare business encourage expensive but needless treatments but medical kidnapping to the extent Tenet/NME did seems pretty darn unusual. I think that Hillary Clinton associates with a healthcare company that began its existence by abducting kids says it all.
I need to look into the Awan case some more. I got fed up with it and ignored it for a while because George Webb was acting like a drunken histrionic and there was the weird Dave Acton drama. Then of course Imran gets arrested and it is back in the forefront.
I think you mean Elizabeth Beck. You could ask her. Here is what I believe is her twitter account. https://twitter.com/eleebeck I don't think she will say any more about Mayo Clinic though out of fear of death. Can't say I blame her.
2impendingdoom ago
yes to all. & I did mean Beck. The Daily Caller has coverage of the Awan's without having to deal with the annoying videos, its where I saw the connection to the Iraqi doctor. I think it was G. Webb's source in the first place.