$55 MILLION LOSS FOR TENET HEALTHCARE.Byline: Staff and Wire Services SANTA BARBARA Santa Barbara (săn'tə bär`brə, –bərə), city (1990 pop. 85,571), seat of Santa Barbara co., S Calif., on the Pacific Ocean; inc. 1850. - Tenet Healthcare Tenet Healthcare Corporation (THC) is an operating company that owns and operates 57 hospitals in the United States [1]. It is based in Dallas, Texas. Its stock ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange is NYSE: THC. Corp. reported a $55 million loss in its third quarter as it wrote down the value of some of its hospitals due to a sharp drop in Medicare reimbursement Reimbursement Payment made to someone for out-of-pocket expenses has incurred. revenue and one-time costs from layoffs. The company also lowered its earnings guidance for the full year, citing a decline in Medicare revenue and higher costs. The nation's second-largest hospital chain reported a net loss of 12 cents per share Cents per share The amount of a mutual fund's dividend or capital gains distributions that a shareholder will receive for each share owned. , in the quarter ended Feb. 28 in contrast to a profit of $280 million, or 56 cents per share, last year. The loss included a non-cash charge Non-Cash Charge A charge off, made by a company against earnings, that does not require an initial outlay of cash. Notes: Non-cash charges are typically against the depreciation, amortization, and depletion accounts on a company's balance sheet. of $383 million relating to relating to relate prep → concernant relating to relate prep → bezüglich +gen, mit Bezug auf +acc a write- down of the value of 10 general hospitals and four other properties. The charge is due primarily to a reduction in revenue from Medicare outlier outlier /out·li·er/ (out´li-er) an observation so distant from the central mass of the data that it noticeably influences results. outlier an extremely high or low value lying beyond the range of the bulk of the data. payments, which are designed to reimburse hospitals for extra care given to the sickest patients beyond fixed charges set by Medicare. Excluding one-time items and changes in accounting rules, Tenet said its operating income Operating Income The profit realized from a business' own operations. Notes: This would not include income from things such as investments in other firms. Also referred to as operating profit or recurring profit. for the quarter would have been $190 million, or 40 cents per share, compared with $310 million, or 62 cents per share for the same quarter last year. Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call had expected earnings per share of 53 cents per share. Revenue rose 5.8 percent to $3.68 billion compared with $3.48 billion in the same quarter last year. Executives said the company is still in transition as it deals with investigations into its Medicare reimbursement practices, accusations of doctor misdeeds at several hospitals and corporate governance Corporate Governance The relationship between all the stakeholders in a company. This includes the shareholders, directors, and management of a company, as defined by the corporate charter, bylaws, formal policy, and rule of law. changes, including the recent resignation of chief executive Jeffrey Barbakow from Tenet's board of directors. ``We face significant challenges which we are working diligently to address,'' Barbakow said in a conference call with analysts. ``But the core business is solid, the right management is in place and we are committed to doing whatever it takes.'' Tenet said admissions to its hospitals actually rose 2.5 percent during the quarter on a same-facility basis and 1.9 percent overall. Among those hospitals is Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center. Ron Yukelson, a hospital spokesman, said admissions continue to grow on a year-over-year basis. ``We attribute that growth to our concerted effort in the past five years to expand our business working with physicians,'' Yukelson said. ``The other factor is the aging population.'' Admissions to Tenet's Redding Redding, city (1990 pop. 66,462), seat of Shasta co., N central Calif., on the Sacramento River; inc. 1872. A principal tourist center for a mountain and lake region, it also has lumbering, food-processing, and diverse manufacturing. hospital are still down in the mid-teens each month, mostly because of the halt in cardiac services there. There are state and federal investigations under way into alleged unnecessary heart surgeries conducted by two doctors at the Redding hospital. The company said the hospital is hiring new doctors to launch a completely new cardiac practice. Tenet said its revenue from Medicare outlier payments dropped to $40 million during the quarter compared with $191 million in the same quarter last year. The drop is due to voluntary guidelines the company adopted in anticipation of similar steps planned by Medicare. Going forward, Tenet lowered its guidance, but said the adjustments reflected changes in its fiscal year, anticipated revenue from Medicare and other changes, including a decision to expense stock options, and did not reflect changes in underlying assumptions about its operations. Tenet said earnings per share from operations, excluding one-time charges, should be in the $1.34 to $1.65 range, compared with the $1.80 to $2.20 per share previously announced. For the nine months ended Feb. 28, Tenet reported net income of $598 million, or $1.22 per share, compared with $524 million, or $1.04 per share for the same period last year. Revenue rose to $11.2 billion from $10.2 billion a year earlier. In trading on the New York Stock Exchange New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) World's largest marketplace for securities. The exchange began as an informal meeting of 24 men in 1792 on what is now Wall Street in New York City. , Tenet shares rose 4 cents to close Thursday at $15.10. Tenet owns and operates 114 acute care hospitals serving 16 states and employs about 116,500 people. |
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