Tenet Gets Dismissal of Second Emergency Room Billing Lawsuit

Tenet Healthcare Corp. and Detroit Medical Center won dismissal of a False Claims Act suit alleging that they improperly billed federal health-care programs for emergency room services, a federal district court said.

Whistleblowers Sajith Matthews and William Berk failed to sufficiently allege that the defendants directed their subsidiary hospitals to bill government programs while knowing the hospitals failed to render care required for payment from the government, Judge Gershwin A. Drain of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan said in an Aug. 23 order granting the defendants’ motion to dismiss.

The court dismissed a “companion” suit ...