HEALTH

Court Victory for Hospital Company: A Texas jury has ruled in favor of National Medical Enterprises in a case in which a former patient at the NME-owned Psychiatric Institute in Ft. Worth claimed he was intentionally mistreated. The suit was brought in April, 1989, by Saeed Ahmed Beg, who sued NME, the clinic and two doctors, claiming insurance fraud, conspiracy and negligence. A Texas Superior Court judge had earlier dismissed the conspiracy and fraud claims due to insufficient evidence, said Robert Fairbanks, a lawyer for NME. The Santa Monica-based hospital company is the target of a federal investigation into allegations of criminal misconduct, including insurance and billing fraud and illegal patient referrals.