Although Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare saw its overall revenue slightly dip in the first quarter of 2022, its operating income grew nearly 25 percent, according to its financial report released April 20.
The for-profit hospital operator posted net revenue of $4.8 billion in the quarter ended March 31, down 0.8 percent from the same period last year. Net operating revenue from its hospital segment totaled $3.8 billion in the first quarter of 2022, a decline of 3.8 percent from the same period last year. Tenet attributed the decrease in revenue of its hospital segment to the sale of its five Miami-area hospitals in the third quarter of last year.
Tenet's ambulatory surgery center unit saw its net operating revenues grow 14.2 percent year over year to $738 million in the first quarter of 2022. Tenet's revenue cycle unit Conifer also saw revenue growth in the first quarter to $324 million. This is a 4.5 percent increase from the same quarter in 2021. Tenet attributed the increase to contractual rate increases and new business.
Despite seeing this slightly lower net revenue with all of its business units, Tenet recorded reductions across most expense categories. For example, salary, wage and benefit expenses declined 0.9 percent year over year, supplies decreased 2.4 percent and other operating expenses decreased 12.1 percent year over year.
After factoring in the expenses, Tenet recorded an operating income of $648 million in the first quarter of 2022. In the same period last year, Tenet's operating income was $520 million.
Overall, Tenet recorded a net income available to shareholders of $139 million in the first quarter. In the same quarter in 2021, Tenet recorded a net income of $97 million.
"We had a strong start to the year, generating Adjusted EBITDA above our expectations and further improving our balance sheet in the quarter," said Saum Sutaria, MD, CEO of Tenet. "We demonstrated operational discipline across each operating segment, including impressive case growth at USPI, strong and consistent performance in our hospitals and continued margin enhancement at Conifer."