Tenet says Kaiser owes it $16 million

Tenet Healthcare Corp. is suing Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc., claiming that Kaiser failed to pay about $16 million for services provided to Kaiser patients at Tenet-run hospitals.

The lawsuit was filed in Orange County Superior Court. In addition to Tenet, three dozen hospitals are also named as plaintiffs in the case.

Kaiser spokesman James Anderson said Kaiser disputed the allegations, but he declined to elaborate.

According to the lawsuit, the two healthcare companies had a deal that called for Dallas-based Tenet to give a discount to Kaiser patients.

The discounts hinged on Kaiser paying bills on time. Otherwise, Kaiser was required to pay the full rate, according to the complaint.

Oakland-based Kaiser disputed many of the charges, however, claiming that its patients’ conditions should have been treated at its nonemergency facilities, not at Tenet hospitals.

Kaiser failed to pay the contracted rate for services between 2000 and 2004, Tenet said.

The two healthcare companies had been trying to negotiate a solution to their dispute, but talks fell through, Anderson said.

Tenet sought to resolve the matter through arbitration, as required by its contract with Kaiser, but Kaiser refused, claiming that it was not bound to do so by the contract, according to the lawsuit.

Tenet said in the lawsuit that it would seek to bill patients should the court determine that some of the charges were not covered under the deal with Kaiser.