Tenet Taps New Accounting Officer

Troubled Tenet Healthcare Corp. said Thursday that Timothy L. Pullen will become the Santa Barbara firm’s chief accounting officer Aug. 15.

Pullen, 48, who has been with the company in various jobs for 20 years, will replace Raymond L. Mathiasen, who will be retiring but will remain with Tenet as a senior advisor until the transition is complete.

Tenet, California’s largest hospital chain, with 40 hospitals here, currently is the target of a federal investigation into how it handled payments for the sickest patients. Doctors at a Tenet hospital in Redding, Calif., also are being investigated amid allegations they performed unnecessary heart surgeries.

Pullen joined Hillhaven Corp., a subsidiary of Tenet’s predecessor company, in 1983 and has served in various finance-related jobs.