Tenet Healthcare's revenues declined year over year in the second quarter of 2020, but federal grants made available to help offset lost revenues and expenses tied to the COVID-19 pandemic helped push the Dallas-based company's net income higher.
Tenet reported revenues of $3.6 billion in the second quarter of this year, down from $4.6 billion in the same period a year earlier. Revenues from the company's hospital operations segment were down 19.3 percent year over year. The decline was attributed to lower patient volumes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Revenues from Tenet's ambulatory care segment declined 29.8 percent year over year.
The company said revenues from Conifer, its revenue cycle subsidiary decreased in the second quarter of this year due to the impact of volume declines of its clients and hospital divestitures by both Tenet and other clients. Conifer's adjusted EBITDA was down 29.1 percent year over year in the second quarter of 2020.
After factoring in expenses and one-time costs, Tenet reported net income available to shareholders of $88 million in the second quarter of this year, compared to net income of $26 million in the same period a year earlier. The company's net income in the second quarter of this year included $523 million in federal grants made available under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.
Tenet Executive Chair and CEO Ronald A. Rittenmeyer said the second quarter "was a challenge by any measure." He said CARES Act funds helped minimize financial damage from the pandemic as caregivers at its facilities continue to treat COVID-19 patients.
"Today, we and our brave front-line caregivers continue to face an even larger surge of COVID-19 cases in several markets, but we have a much better sense of how to deal with these in a more effective manner," Mr. Rittenmeyer said in an earnings release. "While there is a greater negative financial impact associated with COVID-19 cases, we believe the CARES Act provided reasonable, but not complete relief from the impact of the shutdown and will help with the remaining cases with which we are now engaged."
Looking at results for the first half of 2020, Tenet reported net income of $181 million on revenues of $8.2 billion. The company reported net income of $14 million on revenues of $9.1 billion in the same period a year earlier.
Other major for-profit hospital operators, including Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare and King of Prussia, Pa.-based Universal Health Services, also posted higher net income in the second quarter of this year than in the same period a year earlier.