Tenet Tangles With California Blue Cross

Beginning Nov. 30, Blue Cross will no longer reimburse Tenet's Modesto hospital for the procedures. It will also now review Tenet's other heart programs in the state.

"We have to," Kamil said simply. "The Tenet system has 24 to 26 hospitals in California. We'll probably look at all ... or most of those that do these procedures."

Blowback

Late Monday, Tenet suddenly took an aggressive stand against the big California insurer. The company said it was "outraged" that Blue Cross had shared its findings in a front-page story with the Los Angeles Times -- just days after making the results available to Tenet itself -- and even threatened legal action against the insurance company.

"If [Blue Cross of California] does not immediately and unconditionally withdraw its notice of termination, [Doctors Medical Center] will have no choice but to consider BCC's actions an unlawful repudiation of the agreement, and it is prepared to take whatever legal action is necessary to protect its rights and pursue all of its remedies in that case," wrote Rod Stone, Tenet's deputy general counsel. "BCC should also be aware that Tenet and DMC are currently investigating any claims that they and others may have against BCC in connection with its communications with any third parties."

In closing, Stone urged Blue Cross to immediately contact the company so that the two parties "may discuss how to begin repairing the unnecessary damage that has been done in the past three days to an otherwise long and beneficial association."

By then, however, another powerful player had already jumped into that dialogue. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, who's leading one of two congressional probes into Tenet's business practices, on Monday issued a letter requesting information related to the Blue Cross study. After being shunned by Tenet itself, which has yet to produce the findings of its own review at Redding, Grassley asked Blue Cross to deliver the findings of its study -- and the information on which those findings are based -- over the next two weeks.