Tenet Healthcare has reported net income of $61 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, compared to a net loss of $24 million in the comparable period of the prior year.
The Dallas-based hospital operator saw its net operating revenues grow to $4.5 billion in the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2014, up from $3.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013.
The increase in operating revenues was primarily driven by increasing patient volumes, improving terms in managed care contracts and growing its Conifer Health Solutions business. Conifer, a subsidiary of Tenet, is a provider of healthcare performance improvement solutions.
In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, same-hospital admissions were up 4 percent at Tenet facilities and adjusted admissions were up 4.5 percent, compared to the same period of the preceding year. The hospital operator increased outpatient visits by 9.6 percent in the fourth quarter.
"Our strategies to capture incremental market share, combined with an improving economy and expanded health coverage, generated admission growth that was among the highest in the industry," said Trevor Fetter, president and CEO of Tenet.
The California provider fee program also helped boost Tenet's revenue. It contributed $165 million to the company's net operating revenues in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, up from $19 million in the fourth quarter of 2013.
Tenet's after-tax income from continuing operations was $104 million, or $1.03 per diluted share, for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, compared to $43 million, or $0.43 per diluted share, in the comparable quarter of the previous year.
Those numbers fell just short of analyst expectations. Analysts polled by FactSet expected Tenet to report adjusted income of $1.18 per share on $4.6 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter, according to a MarketWatch report.
Tenet said it expects its adjusted earnings per share for fiscal 2015 to be in a range of $1.32 to $2.40 per share. Analysts are expecting earnings of $2.25 per share for fiscal 2015, according to MarketWatch.
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