Mr. Jennings worked with National Medical Enterprises, now known as Tenet Healthcare, in the 1990s when the federal government accused its psychiatric division of overbilling Medicare. He also worked with Tenet as president of the eastern division in 2002, when the company settled allegations of overbilling Medicare for cardiac surgery.
Mr. Jennings stressed that if a department, provider or division is doing exceptionally well compared to the others, it is important to question why. With each incident, he said a small portion of the company, or half a dozen people, created the problem. He also said he and his team adopted a proactive approach when communicating about the allegations.
“We took the attitude with the stock market and the newspapers that if we do something wrong, we’re going to tell you about it,” he said. “And we took the attitude with the federal government, given that Medicare rules are extremely complex, that we’re going to call the government and ask them to come look at something in the gray zone.”
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