It has been repeatedly asserted that Australia is different and that these things could not happen here. It has been a process of beating down the doors of progressive denial of the extent of corporate dysfunction in Australia. First it was only a few of Tenet/NME's psychiatric hospitals in Texas, then only Tenet Psychiatric Hospitals, then only Tenet/NME and finally only in the US. Columbia/HCA would behave differently in Australia. To push enlightenment further I included this section addressing the past record and current business practices of Australia's largest corporate provider of health care. I am not suggesting that their practices in health care have been or are illegal.

Contents

History
Guilty of price fixing
Closed minded thought processes
Predictions
Corporate style medicine
Mayne Nickless and Public Hospitals
Overseas expansion 

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Back to main Columbia/HCA access page
Part 6 : Conclusions
References - (Best opened in a separate window)

MAYNE NICKLESS ^{4, 8, 9, 41, 118, 119, 120}

[Top] - History:- Mayne Nickless was a multinational trucking business with interests in Australia, Europe and the USA. A few years ago it purchased hospitals in Australia from Health Care of America. When NME elected to abandon its Australian venture Mayne Nickless bought its hospitals and is now the largest health care corporation in Australia.

[Top] - Guilty of price fixing:- In 1994 after a bitter dispute with the Trade Practices Commission Mayne Nickless pleaded guilty to defrauding its customers by running a price fixing racket with competitors. It paid $7.7 million and was subjected to court injunctions. The reports on its conduct suggest extreme closed minded thought processes. Corporate executives did not accept the assertion by Professor Fels, chairman of the Trades Practices Commission that "We have never seen such a case of blatant defiance of the law and such a massive ripping off of companies." and "People are shocked by the extent of it -- the systematic, high level, widespread way it was done" and "the most blatant and extensive market-rigging arrangement the TPC had come across in its 20 year history". It is clear that the company did not think that there was much wrong with what it had done. It responded aggressively and threatened Professor Fels who had described them as arrogant. The company indicated that management continued to have the full support of the board. No one was fired. There was no sign of any remorse. Professor Fels said that "he had not heard one word of apology to their customers from any of them."

[Top] - Closed minded thought processes:- The press reports that the evidence was "electrifying". Of more interest to me are the revelations about the world view of staff. Executives spoke of "Orderly marketing is a feature of how we do business in Australia". The fraudulent arrangements were referred to as an "orderly marketing arrangement", "the peace" and "detente". These reflect a culture which tolerates socially unacceptable conduct. In my view the use of these words by board members reveals a deeply entrenched corporate culture, well shielded from the social controls of the wider community. When staff in the company expressed concerns about what was happening and refused to accept rationalisations they were met with aggression and the chairman refused to speak to them. Rokeach describes such conduct in his book.

[Top] - Predictions:- One could have predicted from their behaviour that Mayne Nickless would not accept that their conduct was wrong and that they would offend again if given the opportunity. In 1996 Mayne Nickless were convicted again, this time of deceiving customers by sending articles for which customers had paid for air freight, by road instead. It could also be predicted that they would view corporate medicine entirely within an economic frame and would attempt to emulate US practices.

[Top] - Corporate style medicine:- The company clearly saw great profit potential in the medical market and spoke publicly to the press of this. It switched the thrust of its commercial efforts from trucking to health care. It adopted the American practice of incentives and offered its two senior executives in the health care chain of command massive bonuses if they reached financial objectives. It also adopted the American Practice of setting up large fast food style medical clinics, a form of practice that is frowned on in Australia. There is no requirement in their contracts that doctors in these clinics refer patients to Mayne Nickless hospitals "even though it is true that we would like them to do so." Like corporations in the USA Mayne Nickless are buying up radiology, pathology and general practices. Columbia/HCA speaks of "seamless health care". ⁴ Mayne Nickless calls it "one stop" health care. ⁴ That this is a US style integrated system based on a business model is clear from the explanation. Staff make a comparison with a travel agent which arranges everything for you. Mayne Nickless talks of "value added through vertical integration" When questioned about practices a spokesman said "We don't make the rules." To me there is an uncomfortable ring to these statements when set against the previous Mayne Nickless assertion "Orderly marketing is a feature of how we do business in Australia".

[Top] - Mayne Nickless and Public Hospitals:- Mayne Nickless has been one of the main companies awarded contracts to run public hospitals for the government. Their conduct of the hospital in Macquarie has been adversely reviewed by the Auditor General in New South Wales. It seems that the services provided by Mayne Nickless have been much more costly than the same services provided by public hospitals in New South Wales. There were also major criticisms in regard to the nature of the contract entered into between Mayne Nickless and the NSW government.

[Top] - Overseas expansion:- Mayne Nickless has recently had a bad press in regard to these matters and a national Four Corners program was very critical of its clinics. Like NME and Columbia/HCA its response has been to move overseas. I believe that it already operates in Indonesia and newspapers report its interest in entering the French market.

Mayne Nickless has its own set of web pages on this site and these issues are explored in greater depth there.

Click Here to go to the central Mayne Nickless page

Click Here to go directly to the page describing Mayne's collusive practices

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LINKS TO MAPS
Central Map ..... Initial Map ..... USA Map ..... Australian Map ..... International Map ..... Corporate Practices Map..... (to print)

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Path
Home Page .... US Corporate Page .... Access to Columbia/HCA

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Overview 1 (1997) ... Overview 2 (2000) ...Overview 3 (2003) ... Patients ... I told you ... Licenses

Columbia/HCA submission pages
Background--The USA--Australia--Business Practices--Mayne--Conclusion--References

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Last modified 31 March 1998 J.M. Wynne
Minor formatting changes August 2003