Tenet shaking up board, management
The hospital chain makes its moves after being targeted in a Medicare investigation.
By Katherine Vogt, amednews staff. April 28, 2003.
The nation's second largest for-proft hospital chain, Tenet Healthcare Corp. is seeking to revive itself with new leadership -- replacing one-third of its board and appointing a new board chair, in the wake of a federal probe and a series of scandals and financial setbacks.
Tenet announced April 8 that Jeffrey T. Barbakow would step down as board chair later this year. In addition, three other long-serving board members are slated to retire to make room for new members. Barbakow will remain chief executive officer, and the board said it would name a nonexecutive chair.
"The events of the last several months have obviously put us under a microscope, and our shareholders have told us having a strong, independent board is something they favor. We are taking action in response,'' Tenet spokesman Harry Anderson said.
The U.S. Justice Dept. filed a lawsuit against Tenet Jan. 9 saying it had overbilled Medicare by submitting claims with inflated diagnostic codes. Last fall, the FBI raided a Tenet hospital in Redding, Calif., as part of a probe into claims that two doctors had performed hundreds of unnecessary heart operations. And in December 2002, the government launched a probe into whether a San Diego hospital had paid kickbacks to doctors or violated physician recruitment laws.
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