Tenet Healthcare CEO Saum Sutaria, MD, said the Dallas-based for-profit system is concerned about the "degree of denial activity that [they] see from some of the health plans."
"We think it's excessive and inappropriate," Dr. Sutaria said on the company's Oct. 30 third quarter earnings call, according to a transcript from Seeking Alpha. "And we continue to work on our appropriate documentation, both for us and obviously with Conifer for all of our clients in order to push back on the volume of clinical denials on the basis of having excellent documentation and we think that's the right path out of that."
An Oct. 24 Kaufman Hall report found that increasing rates in claims denials are having the most significant effect on hospital and health system revenue cycles, with 73 percent of the health system leaders surveyed noting an increased rate of claims denials in 2023. Claims denials were also the top revenue cycle issue in the 2022 survey.
Tenet reported net income of $101 million — a 23% decline year over year — in the third quarter of 2023, on revenue of $5.1 billion.