CHICAGO (Reuters) - Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, brother of U.S. President George W. Bush, will join the board of Tenet Healthcare Corp. (THC.N: Quote, Profile , Research), the biggest publicly traded hospital company said on Thursday.
The move to appoint Bush, 54, comes as Dallas-based Tenet continues its struggle to recover from a slew of scandals and lawsuits. Last year, it settled with the U.S. Department of Justice for $900 million over allegations that it had bilked the Medicare insurance program for the elderly. Earlier this month it settled a securities probe over fraud charges.
Government lawsuits and several legal actions related to quality of care caused doctors to flee the company's hospitals, which has led to sinking patient admissions.
Update: Sinfonian has an overview of Jeb's lifestyle after he left the governorship.
3 comments:
I worked as a temp secretary at Tenet's HQ in Santa Monica way back in the 90's and was there when the FBI raided Corporate HQ and all the major offices of Tenet (then known as National Medical Enterprises) for the first time when the Justice Dept. brought its first case against NME. The name was later changed to Tenet in an effort to redesign the image of the company after all the hullabaloo that followed. The Justice Dept. demanded mandatory annual Ethics Trainings for every employee and made sure that were tied to performance reviews.
I have nothing good to say about this company -- its policies and procedures touted how ethical and fair they were, but my personal experience was at odds with that assertion.
p.s. I should go on to say I worked at that company as a permanent employee for another 7 years or so, so I watched it grow from owning 42 hospitals to over 100 hospitals in that short period of time. After I left, the newspapers freqently reported additional scandals, all driven by a "bottom-line" corporate mentality.
Exactly. The 'bottom-line'. This is the point where healthcare in the US made a hard right turn because of greed and landed us in the ditch.
The insurance paperwork, the fraud, the unnecessary visits or the denial of needed care... all connect back to this.
Thanks for your comment. It really brings it home.
Post a Comment