Tenet Selling Redding Hospital

Tenet's problems at Redding have not ended, however. Moriarty estimates that Tenet still faces $1 billion in liabilities stemming from lawsuits filed against the hospital. But Tenet itself is denying responsibility for any wrongdoing that might have taken place at the facility.

In a packed courtroom on Monday, the local Redding Searchlight reported, Tenet attorney Susan Marcella argued that the corporation should not be held accountable for any unnecessary surgeries performed by Redding's former doctors. Tenet faces roughly 1,200 lawsuits from Redding patients and survivors who accuse the company of profiting from unnecessary procedures at their expense.

"Tenet did not owe a duty to the plaintiffs," the Searchlight quoted Marcella as saying. "Tenet Healthcare does not operate this hospital, does not run this hospital. ... There are no facts sufficient to justify dragging my client into the proceedings."

Tenet has consistently maintained that its problems at Redding should be blamed entirely on rogue physicians over which it has no control. However, one of the company's hospital CEOs recently claimed that executives are in fact responsible for the practices carried out inside Tenet facilities.

Earlier this month, Tim Joslin -- the CEO of Tenet-owned Doctors Medical Center of Modesto, Calif. -- sued Blue Cross of California after the insurer, which ranks as the state's largest, accused the hospital of carrying out a number of unnecessary heart surgeries like those alleged at Redding. After studying a sample of heart bypasses performed by DMC on its customers, Blue Cross declared that 59% of them were medically unjustified.

Tenet soon commissioned its own independent review that validated all of the procedures, and Blue Cross backed off its threat to end its relationship with DMC. However, Joslin went on to file a defamation lawsuit against Blue Cross after the matter was resolved.

In that complaint, Joslin assumes ultimate responsibility for the practices at his facility.