Tenet settles suits with 680 psychiatric patients
September 1, 1997 1 minute read
Tenet settles suits with 680 psychiatric patients
A California health care organization has paid a reported $98 million to settle 680 cases in which psychiatric patients claimed they were hospitalized without justification in order to bill their insurers. Tenet Healthcare Corp., based in Santa Monica, CA, settled 620 cases filed in Conroe, TX, and 60 cases filed in Fort Worth, TX. There are about 300 similar cases still outstanding, and Tenet spokesman Lance Ignon says the company intends to settle some of them.
The terms of the settlement were supposed to be kept confidential, but The New York Times reported that Tenet agreed to pay $98 million to settle the 680 cases, which amounts to an average of about $144,000 each. Physicians involved in the lawsuits reportedly agreed to pay an additional $20 million to the plaintiffs. Tenet and James Moriarty, JD, a Houston lawyer representing more than 600 of the plaintiffs, declined opportunities to correct the reported settlement amounts.
Patients claimed that social workers associated with National Medical Enterprises, the old name of Tenet Healthcare, admitted them to psychiatric hospitals without justification. They were admitted without seeing a physician first, the patients claimed. The plaintiffs contend that they usually were kept until their insurance benefits were exhausted, and some alleged that they were physically abused. In 1992, the Texas State Department of Mental Health closed down one National Medical Enterprises facility in Dallas for improper use of restraints.
National Medical Enterprises paid $375 million in fines and penalties in 1994 for federal conspiracy charges related to kickbacks and bribes to physicians.
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