Tenet Healthcare Whistleblowers Unable to Revive Fraud Claims

Tenet Healthcare Corp. and Detroit Medical Center convinced a federal appeals court to not reinstate a False Claims Act suit alleging that they improperly billed federal health-care programs for emergency room services.

Whistleblowers Erik Olsen, William Berk, and Sajith Matthews failed to plead fraud with sufficient detail, Judge R. Guy Cole Jr. of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit said Tuesday in a nonprecedential opinion affirming the suit’s dismissal.

The whistleblowers alleged that the defendants engaged in the practice of “boarding,” under which hospitals keep a patient in the ER until a bed in an inpatient unit ...