Jeanne Lenzer reports in this week's BMJ: "The second largest health provider in the United States, Tenet Healthcare, has agreed to pay nearly $500 million to settle claims that doctors did unnecessary surgery at the Redding Hospital, in Redding, California.
The hospital was raided by 40 agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2002 after it received reports that doctors were performing numerous unnecessary cardiac operations. The settlement was signed on 14 June and is the largest ever for unnecessary procedures and ends all civil and criminal actions arising out of the allegations.
In a separate settlement on 29 June, Tenet agreed to sell 11 hospitals and pay $900m to resolve charges that they overcharged Medicare $1.5bn."
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