Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Tenet and CHS resume divestitures, operating losses

By Dave Barkholz  | May 1, 2017

Tenet Healthcare and Community Health Systems each said they will sell more hospitals as their operating losses piled up in the first quarter.

Dallas-based Tenet 
said Monday it had agreed to sell its three hospitals in Houston to HCA Holdings for about $725 million. The health system said in January that it intended to focus its capital and management resources on ambulatory care and hub markets where it has first- and second-place market share or a strong, profitable niche.

The divestiture comes on the heels of a first-quarter operating loss of $52 million.

The earnings report wasn't all bad news. Tenet said it had reached a new multi-year agreement with Humana to restore in-network access to all Tenet providers between June 1, 2017 and October 1, 2017.

Tenet also is accelerating the purchase of USPI, the giant ambulatory surgery center chain, bumping its ownership from a majority share to 80% by July.

CHS posted an operating loss of $199 million in its first quarter on revenue of $4.5 billion, the company said Monday. Admissions fell more than 1% in the first quarter at the 154 hospitals that it owned a year ago.

Struggling CHS is shedding hospitals to reduce $15 billion of debt.

CHS also said Monday that it has signed a definitive agreement to sell 88-bed Lake Area Medical Center in Lake Charles, La., and its associated assets to subsidiaries of CHRISTUS Health. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of this year, subject to customary regulatory approvals and closing conditions.

While other health systems have been looking to 
consolidate via megamergers, Tenet and CHS both have been eyeing divestitures recently. In December, CHS' CFO Larry Cash said CHS expects to raise about $1.2 billion through the sale of 17 hospitals, most of its home health business and non-hospital real estate by early next year.


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