News in brief - Aug. 15, 2005

Tenet likely to miss SEC filing - AHIMA seeks standard health record

Tenet likely to miss SEC filing

Tenet Healthcare Corp. said it would likely delay filing its second quarter financial report because of an ongoing investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The SEC is examining Tenet's disclosures about certain Medicare outlier payments and managed care stop-loss payments prior to 2003. The agency asked Tenet to look into claims that there were inappropriate contractual allowances for managed care contracts at three of its California hospitals until at least 2002.

Depending on the outcome of the investigation, Tenet said it might be forced to revise former financial reports. However, the company said it does not believe that the findings will have a significant impact on its financial position or its financial filings over the last two years.

Tenet's audit committee has hired an independent review team to investigate the claims.

AHIMA seeks standard health record

Seeking to spur adoption of personal health records, the American Health Information Management Assn. on July 25 issued a report recommending a standard definition for a personal health record, and what data elements it should have to support compatibility between different information systems.

The report defines a personal health record as an electronic, universally available, lifelong resource of health information maintained and owned by a patient. It can be accessed at AHIMA's Web site (library.ahima.org/xpedio/groups/public/documents/ahima/pub_bok1_027539.html).