Tenet may be ready for comeback

For several years, Tenet has been struggling to pull itself back together financially, after being pounded by both scandals within and brutal industry conditions without. Now, however, some observers are predicting that this may be the year when Tenet turns things around once and for all, despite continued concerns over core areas of its business.

Tenet definitely still faces some very substantial financial problems. Most particularly, it has almost $4.8 billion in debt, partly due to huge capital investments it made to improve facilities and attract private-insured patients. (Unfortunately, those patients largely haven't been showing up--instead, the volume of uninsureds has risen in recent years.) Not only that, its admissions are too low and its costs too high, analysts say. On top of that, Tenet must make a success of its holdings in Florida, which have been struggling due to lower volumes than expected.

However, Tenet's leaders are making gains in some areas that could have an important impact on the future of the company. For example, it's made progress in raising admissions in its large California and Texas markets. It's also rethinking its strategy in Florida in an effort to make its facilities more physician-friendly. Chain-wide, meanwhile, it's doing much more to woo doctors, visiting nearly 6,000 physicians during the third quarter of last year alone and winning hundreds over to its side. And perhaps most critically in this report-card-focused era, Tenet's quality ratings have begun to rise. This, perhaps most of all, stands to win it better physician relationships and more respect from health plans, both key to its future success.

To learn more about the ongoing Tenet turnaround:
- read this piece from TheStreet.com

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